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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26176576">the stars that shine above us all</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/phis_corner/pseuds/phis_corner'>phis_corner</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>maribat [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops &amp; Cafés, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Bad Parent David Cain, Fluff, Gen, I just realized 18 chapters in that I never tagged Damian as a character, I love Cass with all my heart, Mari throws Damian off a roof, Meet-Cute, Reverse Robins, Sort of? - Freeform, Tags will be updated as I go along, The Author Regrets Nothing, a collection of shorts from my tumblr, also a lot of hair braids, and I would die a la Jason Todd for her, and dc please stop hurting tim he doesn't deserve this, and people can fight me on that, but what are you doing with your life if you haven't watched the original Mulan?, claire de lune is a gorgeous piece, dick taking robin from tim was a shit move, does finding a bleeding antihero in an alley count as a meet cute?, he's fine tho don't worry, let him be happy, minor lila salt, minor spoilers for the original Mulan in ch. 21, oooh SO MUCH ANGST, or... a DICK move, says the author who spent the entire chapter whumping him, that movie was my entire childhood, the Bat-adoption papers are here!, whoopsie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:21:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,316</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26176576</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/phis_corner/pseuds/phis_corner</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of random thoughts, ideas, and prompts from my tumblr. sporadically gets updated when my brain gets a burst of inspiration. </p><p>newest chapter: notice</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassandra Cain/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug &amp; Damian Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug &amp; Dick Grayson, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug &amp; Jason Todd, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jonathan Samuel Kent, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kon-El | Conner Kent, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Wally West, Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>maribat [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842979</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>284</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>636</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>miraculous ladybug stories</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. to fly (or fall) | platonic dickinette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hi. it's me again. procrastinating and delaying updates for faer other fics.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first child of Mary and John Grayson is a girl.</p><p> </p><p>She is born on the outskirts of Paris, France, in the middle of winter. Snowflakes drift gently to the ground outside their tent, joining the ever-growing layer of white on the ground.</p><p> </p><p>Her father nicknames her Blackbird, one of the few birds that can survive the winter.</p><p> </p><p>The second child of Mary and John Grayson is a boy.</p><p> </p><p>He is born three years after the first, in Madrid, Spain. It is the first day of spring. The grass outside is a fresh green, the rays of sun are a warm gold, and somewhere outside, a robin sings.</p><p> </p><p>It is no surprise then, that his mother nicknames him Robin.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette and Richard (or Dick, as he preferred to be called) Grayson grew up flying.</p><p> </p><p>Soaring through the air feels as easy and natural as breathing. Flight runs in their blood, and they can feel the need to fly, the need to be on the trapeze, in their very core.</p><p> </p><p>Of course, they learned other things from the circus. They learned math and physics and basic medical procedures, history as told from the viewpoint of many different countries, and languages. So many languages.</p><p> </p><p>By the time Marinette was six, she spoke and understood Romani and French fluently. Her English was getting there as well, and she knew the basics of Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, and Mandarin. The circus was a huge mix of cultures from all around the world, and she loved it.</p><p> </p><p>However, no matter how much she learns, the need to soar always overcomes everything else.</p><p> </p><p>Once, she asked her father if he and <em>mami</em> were ever scared when they performed. “Doesn’t it scare you that there is no net?”</p><p> </p><p><em>Tătic </em>just laughed and ruffled her dark hair. “What is there to fear? We are Graysons, my little Blackbird. We were born to fly. We spend every moment not in the air wishing we were.”</p><p> </p><p>No amount of wishing could stop their parents from falling.</p><p> </p><p>The only thing that stops Marinette and Dick from joining them is her hesitation right before she leapt. Dick, always trusting her, doesn’t jump either.</p><p> </p><p>Two seconds later, the lines snap, and their mother and father fall. </p><p> </p><p>All of a sudden, the birds that were born to fly had their wings clipped, and nothing will slow their descent as they plummet, hitting the ground over three hundred feet below with a terrible sound that will haunt her forever.</p><p> </p><p>Dick is crying, his blue eyes impossibly wide and filled with never-ending tears as he pleads and begs for them to wake up, for them to get up and be okay.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette knows differently. There is no way that <em>mami </em>and<em> tătic</em> will ever wake again.</p><p> </p><p>Something drips onto the sand below her knees. She touches her face, and it comes away wet with tears.</p><p> </p><p>There is someone trying to comfort her and her brother. She thinks the man looks a little bit familiar, maybe she’s seen him in a magazine, but what does it matter? Her English is fluent, she can understand him, but why should she care?</p><p> </p><p>The paramedics cover their father’s body in a white sheet, and they prepare to take him away. Their mother will be next, and then she and Dick will be alone.</p><p> </p><p>That is the thought that makes her snap.</p><p> </p><p>She screams and cries for the paramedics to not take them away, fights against the muscled arms holding her back, fingernails digging in and drawing blood, but they do not let go.</p><p> </p><p>They can’t take her parents away, they <em>can’t</em>, because then she and Dick will never have their mother’s cooking again. They will never hear their father’s booming laughter, <em>mami’s </em>voice, singing them to sleep, or be wrapped up in one of t<em>ătic’s</em> bear hugs, making them feel safe and warm and loved.</p><p> </p><p>If her mother and father are gone, they won’t be safe or warm or loved.</p><p> </p><p>A small hand tugs on the edge of her costume, and Marinette freezes. Her brother is looking up at her, blue eyes pleading.</p><p> </p><p>Everything clicks back into place. If <em>mami</em> and <em>tătic </em>will not be here, then she is all Dick has left, and vice versa. It is her job now, to make sure that he is safe and warm and loved, but most importantly, it’s her job to make him <em>happy.</em></p><p> </p><p>The first step to Dick being happy is to not show him all the negative emotions swirling around inside her. So she takes a deep, shuddering breath in, wipes the tears away, and pulls her brother into a hug.</p><p> </p><p>She is vaguely aware of the arms that kept her back unhooking themselves from around her waist, and a suit jacket being draped over both their shoulders.</p><p> </p><p>She doesn’t really ponder the significance until a week later, when a billionaire steps into the juvenile detention center looking to take them in.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. mistakes that hurt | no ships</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>a bit of background: the original ask was for Joker to kill Anarka Couffaine and shoot Luka as well in retaliation for Marinette's interference between him and Batman as Ladybug. I only wrote the aftermath of Juleka blaming Marinette.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Marinette walks into the hospital room that holds Juleka Couffaine, who is shaken, but alive.</p><p> </p><p>Which is more than she can say for Anarka.</p><p> </p><p>How do you start a conversation with someone who just lost their mother? “Juleka. Are you… Are you okay?”</p><p> </p><p>The purple haired girl looks at her with an unreadable emotion in her eyes. “Where’s Luka?”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette was kind of hoping she wouldn’t ask. It wasn’t good for her health, to get so much bad news at once. “Juleka…”</p><p> </p><p>“Where’s. Luka.” Juleka growls, far louder than Marinette has ever heard her speak. The heart monitor starts accelerating.</p><p> </p><p>“He’s still in surgery, but it’s not looking good.” Marinette replies quietly. “The doctors said he might not make it.”</p><p> </p><p>She expects a lot of reactions, but the one she gets isn’t one she ever thought would come from Juleka.</p><p> </p><p>“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!” She screams as the heart monitor goes crazy, tears trekking down her face. “IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU, MOM WOULD BE ALIVE! LUKA WOULD BE SAFE!”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette takes a step back, shocked. “Wh-what do you mean?”</p><p> </p><p>“It was the Joker,” Juleka seethes. “Gotham’s Clown Prince of Crime.” Marinette’s eyes widen. “He said that it was your fault. For getting in his way, whatever that meant. It’s your fault that my mother is dead, your fault that my brother might not survive the night.”</p><p> </p><p>It <em>is </em>her fault. She chose to help Batman put Joker back in prison as Ladybug two months ago when she was in Gotham to visit Damian. The Joker swore his revenge, but she didn’t take it seriously- he never left Gotham, after all, and she was across the Atlantic.</p><p> </p><p>She really, really should have been more careful.</p><p> </p><p>“Juleka, I- I’m so-”</p><p> </p><p>“Out.” Her classmate snarls. “Now.”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette hesitates for a moment, trying to find a way to make it better, show how sorry she is.</p><p> </p><p>“GET OUT!”</p><p> </p><p>With a heavy heart, she exits the hospital room and closes the door behind her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. i'll keep you warm | daminette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>requested by @i-is-mysterious on tumblr. prompt 7- "i'll keep you warm." daminette.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>fluff, which is something I don't usually write.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You know, you could have sat this one out.” Robin says, glancing at her. “It’s Mr. Freeze. No one would blame you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Exactly. It’s Mr. Freeze!” Ladybird protests. “He’s not the most hardcore villain Gotham has. Besides, I’m not sitting on the sidelines while you guys go out and fight!”</p><p> </p><p>“You could join Oracle at the Batcomputer.” Robin suggests, then cringes at the glare she gives him.</p><p> </p><p>“I know I’m sensitive to the cold, <em>mon oiseau</em>. I’ll be fine.”</p><p>.o0o.</p><p> </p><p>She was not fine. </p><p> </p><p>They made it within half a mile of the epicenter of the attack when she started shivering.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you cold, <em>habibti</em>?” Robin asks, his domino hiding the concern in his eyes.”</p><p> </p><p>Ladybird grits her teeth, willing them to stop chattering. “M-maybe.”</p><p> </p><p>Her boyfriend unclasps his cape, the extra-heavy thermal one (because it is Mr. Freeze, after all), and wraps it around her shoulders. “This will help keep you warm.”</p><p> </p><p>Ladybird tightens the clasp, reveling in the warmth (and Robin’s familiar scent.) “It’s like being hugged by you, <em>mon oiseau</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>Robin gives her a small smile. “Then I’ll keep you warm.”</p><p> </p><p>The crackle of ice freezing over the asphalt below snaps them back into the moment. “Let’s go.” Ladybird says, and leaps off the building towards the attack, Robin’s cape keeping her warm.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. what makes a hero? | no ships</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>anon: "When you read all those salt fics you notice how Batman quickly reacts and sues Lila no? Well what happens when instead of protecting her , Bruce tells her that she needs to get over it , cry me a river or that she needs to handle a liar by herself ( let’s be honest Batman can be kind of a ass , specially with his robins or daughters)"</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i'm transferring everything and that means this is the fourth chapter in ten minutes.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Let me get this right: There’s a liar by the name of Lila Rossi, and she tells outrageous lies about all sorts of celebrities.” Bruce says, and Marinette nods.</p><p> </p><p>“And what, exactly, do you want me to do about it?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, since she does name drop you a lot, I was hoping you could maybe expose her when we go to Wayne Enterprises?” She asks.</p><p> </p><p>Bruce frowns. “Why would I do that?”</p><p> </p><p>What. “…Because she’s spreading lies everywhere and slandering the names of people like Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale? And you?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, it’s not affecting my business, so I don’t see why I should. You’re Ladybug, aren’t you? Why can’t you handle a liar, not even a good one at that, by yourself?”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette presses her lips together, getting more and more irritated by the minute. “Believe me, Monsieur Wayne, I’ve tried. She has everyone under her thumb so that they do not believe a single word that comes out of my mouth. I tried exposing her as Ladybug as well, she just cried that they had a falling out and that Marinette must have turned Ladybug against her, and now the class despises Ladybug as well.”</p><p> </p><p>“How is it my problem that you can’t expose a liar?” The billionaire asks. “If you just let her keep lying, when she gets into the real world, she would never get a good job anywhere if she doesn’t have proof to back up her resume. That would be karma, wouldn’t it?”</p><p> </p><p>“That’s not the point!” Marinette barely manages to restrain herself from screaming in the face of the richest man in the world, who came knocking on her door to tell her he knew she was Ladybug? What? </p><p> </p><p>“There are others being harmed by her lies! My classmates all believe her every word, and have given up real opportunities to further their careers and talents in favor of the false ones that Lila presents them! Alya’s blog is now filled with lies and she has no hope of ever having a career in journalism! Juleka quit modeling altogether after one too many hints that she wasn’t suited for the job, and Kitty Section kicked Luka off after she said that it was weird to have an older boy in the band! Luka is a year older than them! Only a year!”</p><p> </p><p>“Are these the same classmates that turned against you?” Bruce asks calmly.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, yes, but-”</p><p> </p><p>“Then why do you care? They were stupid enough to believe her and turn against you.”</p><p> </p><p>What- how is this man a philanthropist? “Just because they were swayed by her lies does not mean that they deserve to spend the rest of their lives regretting it! They are not bad people- just misled, and I am asking you to help me put them on the right path!”</p><p> </p><p>“Let me think.” The billionaire pretends to think for a moment. “No.”</p><p> </p><p>He stands and moves to exit her apartment. “You know, when I learned you were the fame Ladybug who defeated Hawkmoth, I was going to recruit you to my team. As it turns out, you’re not much of a hero at all if you can’t even expose a liar.”</p><p> </p><p>It all clicks in her head. Bruce Wayne is from Gotham. Gotham is the home of Batman. Batman, who is backed by Wayne Enterprises. Bruce Wayne is Batman. “Well, Monsieur Wayne, can you really call yourself Batman, a hero and protector of the world, if you refuse to help expose a liar to protect a single class?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. the difference between hero and villain | no ships</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>a combination of two posts- the initial idea I had, and the expansion I did after receiving an ask.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I had too many hi-chews, but <em>what if Master Fu and Ra’s al Ghul were the same person?</em></p><p> </p><p>Look at the hair and beards.</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>not the <em>most</em> similar, but all Ra’s would really have to do is take a dip in the Lazarus Pit,  comb the weird tufts of hair on the side of his head down, trim the mustache, and <em>boom.</em> </p><p> </p><p>Ra’s could be secretly manipulating Marinette and Adrien to collect the butterfly and peacock for him so that once he takes their miraculouses back, the League of Assassins can build a miraculous army or something and finally defeat Batman and maybe the entire Justice League.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em>Anonymous asked: </em>
  <em>I saw your post about Ra's being master Fu, and all i could think was how half of the dumb things that happened in the series would have been nip in the bud because Ra's wouldn't put up with this jackassery. Also, i feel like he would see a lot of potential for Marinette to be like Bruce, maybe even train her or something, who knows.</em>
</p>
<p></p><div class="captext">
  <p> </p>
  <p>Maybe the League always had eyes on the Order of the Guardians in the past, always waiting for a chance to take a miracle box because maybe the full collection of all the miraculouses in the box will give the army some sort of bonus power or something.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>So when the temple goes up in flames, it is all too easy to kill the foolish boy who is the last of the order and take the miracle box he is holding.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>And imagine Ra’s’ fury, when the butterfly and peacock have already been lost because of the boy’s stupidity.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>So he hides it away for 180 years, until the kwami of foresight tells him that the butterfly will be activated in Paris very soon. And then he takes his usual bath in the Lazarus Pit to become younger, trims the beard a bit, and moves to a small massage parlor under the name of Wang Fu.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>He picks his Ladybug and Black Cat <em>before</em> the day the first akuma is sent out, because commanding the snake kwami to tell him these things in advance does come in handy.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Why does he pick children? Because they’re easily malleable, more easily manipulated, and there’s a less chance they will defect.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>He trains the girl and boy, Marinette and Adrien, separately for two weeks before their first day of school, coincidentally, the day the first akuma is sent out. (how does he find Adrien? take your pick.)</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>They perform adequately. Ra’s was never one for compliments.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>The girl is… interesting, in a way that only the Detectives ever were to him. She has cunning, wit, intellect. She sees an object and can make convoluted plans on the spot that actually work and finish the job in less than five minutes. She is quick to react, quick to strategize, and quick to analyze the battlefield. </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Like Red Robin. Like Batman.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Ra’s planned on just taking their miraculouses and leaving Paris once they brought the butterfly and peacock to him, to build his army and overthrow the Justice League once and for all, but maybe… he could bring an apprentice.</p>
</div><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. a hogwarts!au | timari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>the hogwarts teachers are bored.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm back!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A hogwarts au where the teachers are the members of the Justice League and Bruce Wayne is the Headmaster. Mostly Young Justice ships, with a side of maribat.</p>
<ul>
<li>The faculty meetings are boring and the teachers start a betting pool on the students’ love lives.</li>
<li>It starts with Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. Literally everyone knows that their romantic feelings towards the others are returned except them. <em>Everyone.</em>
</li>
<li>The Herbology Professor, Pamela Isley, produces a chart, and they start placing bets.</li>
<li>The Headmaster refuses to take part. The rest of the teachers are happy participate if it means escaping the torture of Bruce’s lectures.</li>
</ul><p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Enter Conner Kent and Megan Morse. Dinah Lance, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, brings out the chart again, and bets are made.</li>
<li>Bruce still refuses to take part. His loss.</li>
</ul><p> </p>
<ul>
<li>“Stephanie Brown is looking a bit cozy with Tim Drake.”</li>
<li>“Nah, Cassie Sandsmark is <em>definitely</em> pining.”</li>
<li>Tim dates both of them, but decides that they’re better off as friends.</li>
<li>Who’s going to end up with Tim now? </li>
<li>“I bet it’s Bart Allen.” </li>
<li>“But Bart likes Jaime Reyes?”</li>
</ul><p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Once Bart and Jaime get together, the professors are stumped.</li>
<li>And then Diana Prince points out how competitive the French transfer student is with Tim in her Transfiguration class.</li>
<li>Selina Kyle, the librarian, adds that they have bi-weekly study sessions in the library and all the professors agree that the two Ravenclaws are seen everywhere together. </li>
<li>Like, <em>everywhere. </em>They take the same classes, are in the same house, and even though Tim isn’t on the Quidditch team, he shows up to every practice and every game to watch Marinette play.</li>
<li>All of a sudden, everyone ships Timari and Bruce is just Done™.</li>
<li>“Can we <em>please</em> have a normal faculty meeting for once?”</li>
</ul><p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Timari has their first kiss under the enchanted mistletoe Zatanna put up in every single doorway for the holidays. </li>
<li>They weren’t paying attention when she announced it at breakfast, instead quietly debating the ethicality of using house elves as unpaid servants.</li>
<li>So, upon exiting their usual study session, they are trapped under the doorway until they kiss.</li>
<li>Zatanna enchanted it so a cheek kiss would work too, but <em>they don’t know that.</em>
</li>
<li>So Marinette just pecks him on the lips and makes a dash for it.</li>
<li>And Tim stands there for the next five minutes, mouth slightly ajar and face bright red.</li>
<li>Selina pretends to read a book (it’s upside down) while grinning from behind her desk. She just won a lot of money from her colleagues.</li>
</ul><p>BONUS:</p>
<ul>
<li>Zatanna comes into the meeting one day squealing about how Bruce’s youngest son helped Clark’s youngest learn <em>Wingardium Leviosa </em>in her Charms class.</li>
<li>“Jon gave Damian the brightest smile! But get this- Damian smiled back! <em>He actually smiled back!”</em>
</li>
<li>Clark puts down fifty Galleons for DamiJon.</li>
<li>Bruce slams down two hundred, to everyone’s surprise.</li>
<li>“I don’t know, Bruce, the Mizoguchi girl totally has the hots for Dami-”</li>
<li>“Dami. Jon.”</li>
<li>Hal Jordan is terrified into silence.</li>
</ul>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>this prompt is actually set in the same universe as a fic I published a bit later. It's called <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26396218/chapters/64300579"> of magical studies and caffeine </a>, and focuses on Tim and Marinette's relationship development (which is hinted on here.)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. caffeine and a certain red bird | timari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>there's a new cafe just outside Crime Alley, and the owner is terrifying...</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hA second chapter in a row, third thing posted on ao3 today- what is my life?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>a timari coffee shop au where Marinette moves to Gotham post-Hawkmoth’s  defeat because of the negative energy and bad luck that radiates from the place, and starts a coffee shop to slowly but surely spread luck throughout the city.</p>
<ul>
<li>Coccinelle Cafe isn’t in the nicer part of Gotham, not by a long shot. It’s just on the outskirts of the Bowery, actually. (If one was a vigilante or part of the criminal underworld, they would know that it was just outside Red Hood’s territory and within Red Robin’s patrol sector.) </li>
<li>Because of its location, the coffee shop tends to attract... interesting customers.</li>
<li>The first rogue to enter is Harley Quinn. Marinette doesn’t blink an eye, even as the other customers gape and some flee, and hands her the caramel macchiato with a tower of whipped cream and sprinkles.</li>
<li>After that, more and more rogues start visiting, each one doing their best to scare, or at least faze the owner. None succeed.</li>
<li>Seriously, what is this 5 foot tall girl even <em>made of?</em>
</li>
<li>The Coccinelle Cafe becomes famous for not only attracting rogues, but rumors on the street are that all of them are terrified by the owner. The ‘no fighting, no maiming, and no killing’ rule in the cafe is heavily enforced, and not a single drop of blood has been spilled on its pristine floors.</li>
<li>Obviously, Batman doesn’t understand how this is possible, and neither do any of the other family members. Tim decides to investigate, but since the cafe closes at night and the Bats can’t be seen milling around in the daytime without looking suspicious, he goes as a civilian.</li>
<li>Now, Marinette has a vague idea of who the Waynes are, but she doesn’t know their faces and frankly doesn’t really care. </li>
<li>So when Tim Drake-Wayne walks into her shop with large eyebags and orders too many espresso shots to be healthy, she just hands him his order and observes that whoever that is, he’s kind of cute.</li>
<li>The perpetually tired man comes back every single day, ordering an unhealthy amount of caffeine every time. The sixth time, she gives him a croissant to go with it, and chats with him for a couple minutes. Marinette learns that his name is Tim.</li>
<li>She’s called away when Two-Face insults Penguin’s nose and they’re a couple seconds away from pulling out the guns.</li>
<li>“What did I say about violence in my cafe? Out, both of you! You’re not allowed back in for a week!”</li>
<li>“But coffee...”</li>
<li>Tim comes in every day for three months without fail, some days with larger bags than others, and sometimes hiding injuries (that limp could be hidden from the general public, but to the trained eye and the Guardian of the Miraculous? Yeah, right.)</li>
<li>About three months after they meet, Marinette has already closed and is getting ready to go back upstairs to her apartment when she hears someone downstairs.</li>
<li>Further investigating shows the noises to be coming from the back room, which means that they must have picked the lock on the employee door. </li>
<li>She expects a lot of things, considering where the cafe is located, but she doesn’t expect Red Robin, face planted on her floor and surrounded by a steadily growing pool of blood.</li>
<li>“Well, congratulations. You’re the first person to bleed on my floors.”</li>
<li>Marinette patches up the stab wound in his side, and then the vigilante wakes up. </li>
<li>“Hey Mari... can I have the usual? But maybe twenty espresso shots instead of sixteen?”</li>
<li>Ah. It’s Tim. That makes... slightly more sense.</li>
<li>“So it really wasn’t enough that you forced entry into my cafe after closing time to bleed on my floors, but now you want an insane amount of caffeine to go with your stab wound? No.”</li>
<li>“But it’s coffee! I’ll pay you double!”</li>
<li>“No.”</li>
<li>“Triple?”</li>
<li>“No, Tim.”</li>
<li>He then passes out.</li>
<li>About an hour and a half later, Marinette hears a knock on her window and sees Nightwing crouched on her ledge.</li>
<li>“Hey, uh, sorry to bother you, but is Red Robin in here by any chance? He didn’t respond to the check-in and I tracked his signal here, so-”</li>
<li>Marinette points to the unconscious vigilante on her couch.</li>
<li>“He bled on my floor. It was a nightmare to clean up.” </li>
<li>The look in her eyes makes Nightwing shiver a little.</li>
<li>The next morning, when Tim comes in at his normal time, Marinette doodles the Red Robin symbol on his coffee cup.</li>
<li>He doesn’t see it until he’s at W.E., and only then does he remember what he said last night. </li>
<li>Tim’s pretty sure that he’s the only person who usually gets sixteen shots of espresso with his black coffee, anyway.</li>
</ul><p>Basically, a coffee shop romance with a five foot tall girl who scares the f*ck out of Gotham’s rogues (and some vigilantes) and a perpetually sleep-deprived coffee addict that moonlights as one of the aforementioned vigilantes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>edit: Zorua_the_Adorable actually wrote this prompt! You can find it <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26456410/chapters/64463476">here!</a></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. my other half (is a hero) | daminette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>a prompt/outline of sorts that i may or may not write.</p><p>Damian is an assassin turned hero. Marinette is the representation of Creation herself.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Daminette soulmate au where there are endless combinations of bonds, but one thing is always the same- the bond only presents itself once you touch your soulmate.</p>
<ul>
<li>Marinette is in Gotham on a field trip. She is left behind by the class after the day they spend in the shopping district, and proceeds to walk halfway across Gotham back towards her hotel.</li>
<li>When she notices four men following her, she turns into an alley and kicks their butts. As she picks up her bags and is about to leave, Robin drops down, having heard the commotion. He offers to take her back to the hotel because it isn't safe at night.</li>
<li>As soon as his hand makes contact with Marinette's waist, they both feel a shock go through them, and they know that they are soulmates.</li>
<li>They figure out that they have a telepathic bond, able to send messages to each other but not able to look through the other's memories.</li>
<li>Robin doesn't know how to deal with the fact that he has a soulmate. Growing up in the League of Assassins, he was always taught that soulmates were weaknesses, and had to be eliminated. Marinette is an innocent civilian. Sure, she can kick ass, but she shouldn't have to deal with all the emotional baggage of being soulmates with an assassin-turned-vigilante.</li>
<li>So Robin tells her that he doesn't want a soulmate and leaves her heartbroken on a roof.</li>
<li>Marinette doesn't know how to react to that. Everyone in her class easily turned against her. Even her own soulmate didn't want her. Is she really just that unlikeable?</li>
<li>When Damian goes to sleep, he enters a mindspace, filled with the things that represent both him and Marinette. He waits all night for her to appear, to maybe apologize and explain a little, but she never shows.</li>
<li>Marinette doesn't go to sleep that night.</li>
<li>The next day, the class goes to Gotham Academy. They are split into smaller groups, and Marinette ends up in Damian's class. Everyone else is deterred by his glare, Marinette sees it and is determined to make him her friend by the end of the week.</li>
<li>Damian doesn't know what to think. His soulmate that doesn't know she's his soulmate willingly sat down next to him when he was posing as a civilian and proceeded to start a conversation with him and act like he didn't just crush her soul under the heel of his foot last night.</li>
<li>The worst part? He can't stop thinking about her.</li>
<li>Marinette thought it would be harder to forget over Robin not wanting anything to do with her, but befriending Damian helps. He takes her mind off the boy dressed like a traffic light.</li>
<li>Of course, most of her progress is set back when she falls asleep and opens her eyes in a mindspace, and her stupid soulmate is standing there in pajamas and a domino mask.</li>
<li>As time goes by, Damian grows increasingly more conflicted about his feelings towards Marinette, and Marinette, being constantly exposed to Robin, starts to understand and warm up to him while also developing feelings for Damian.</li>
<li>Basically, a soulmate au with tons of confusion, angst (in the beginning), and identity shenanigans.</li>
</ul>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. mirror, mirror on the wall | jasonette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>when Jason woke up, he saw someone else in the mirror.</p><p>a girl, with blue eyes and dark blue hair and a beautiful smile.</p><p>his soulmate.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this is the last one today I swear.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jasonette soulmate au where you see your soulmate in a mirror once you 'mature'. The age is different for everyone, but Jason sees Marinette in the mirror after he is revived by the pit.</p>
<ul>
<li>Once he gets over the pit madness, Jason starts a book cafe and is perfectly content with his life, but he still hasn't found the girl in the mirror.</li>
<li>Marinette hasn't seen her soulmate in the mirror yet for whatever reason. She's defeated hawkmoth and moved to Gotham to try and start a new, normal life, and sees an ad asking for help at a book cafe.</li>
<li>When she walks into the cafe, she immediately falls in love with the cozy interior. Jason sees his soulmate walk into the cafe, asking about the advertisement, and hires her on the spot.</li>
<li>It becomes pretty obvious early on that his soulmate (Marinette, her name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng) hasn't seen him in the mirror yet, because she looks at him with no recognition whatsoever, but that's okay. He's willing to wait, and just work by her side at his cafe. She makes amazing pastries, which is a bonus because while he could bake, his pastries weren't mind-blowingly good like hers are.</li>
<li>Marinette is oblivious, but over time, she starts to notice how handsome Jason is, and how he's so unlike Chat Noir because he actually respects her personal boundaries. She slowly starts to develop feelings for him and panics a little because what about her soulmate? The chance that he is her soulmate is almost zero, given how many people are in the world.</li>
</ul><p>Just Jason and Marinette, working at a book cafe together and slowly falling in love, one very aware of their soulmate status and the other innocently clueless.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. wrong number | timari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Marinette texts the wrong number, and Tim doesn't mind the stranger who just sent him a text threatening to painfully murder someone he's never met.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>meow. it's me. I'm not dead. However, fic updates are reeeeeally slow, in case you haven't noticed, because I keep procrastinating, writing new things, and folding angst into supposedly happy chapters because of my inability to write any fluff.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>an au where Marinette accidentally texts the wrong number because she got a new phone (maybe after Lila broke her old one) and hasn’t saved her contacts yet.</p><p>The text she’s thinking she sends to Kagami: <b>I swear to god, if that bitch lies one more time about knowing MDC, I will tie her up at the top of the Eiffel Tower and eviscerate her.</b></p><p>What Kagami receives:</p><p>What Timothy Jackson Drake, who is just trying to live his (very chaotic) life, receives: <b>I swear to god, if that bitch lies one more time about knowing MDC, I will tie her up at the top of the Eiffel Tower and eviscerate her.</b></p><p>Tim is terrified, but also impressed.</p><p>Cue him replying with a witty comment and late night conversations!!!</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. i've got you/when i'm with you, i'm happy | konmari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: If your taking prompts could you do 16 or 83 for Conner x Marinette?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>do i have prompts in my inbox from august? maaaaaaaaaybe. am I getting around to them? yes. I am desperately trying to muster the energy to garner inspiration for your prompt, anon, if you're still out there waiting. I apologize for the two month waiting period, and say with great sadness that it might be another two before you see your request fulfilled. Or more, depending on whether or not I would like to pass my midterms.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She is falling.</p><p>Hurtling through the sky at speeds that would most definitely be fatal upon impact, wind roaring in her ears as the ground rushes closer, closer.</p><p>She is falling, and there is nothing she can do about it because she isn’t transformed.</p><p>Or, more accurately, she isn’t transformed anymore.</p><p>It was your typical alien invasion. They’d come, hoping to challenge Earth’s heroes and take advantage of the planet’s population and resources. Their force had split into two groups, one landing in Paris, and one in Metropolis.</p><p>Ladybug had quickly assembled her Miraculous Team, and they had leaped into the fight.</p><p>These extraterrestrials were bird-like, if birds had seven legs with razor-sharp claws and beaks with serrated edges that could easily bite through an arm.</p><p>One had snatched her up from the ground as she tried to find a place to duck away and detransform after using her Lucky Charm, carrying her up into the sky, far above the battle going on below.</p><p>Once they passed the clouds, they kept going up.</p><p>And then her earrings beeped.</p><p>And again.</p><p>And again.</p><p>And then her suit had receded in a swath of pink light, and suddenly she was just Marinette in a domino mask to hide her identity, up in the sky where the air was getting thin and it was hard to breathe.</p><p>Then all of a sudden, the claws in her clothing were gone, and she instantly changed directions as gravity took hold.</p><p>And now, she falls, doing her best to slow her descent, but it will not be enough to save her from being a bloody splatter on the ground.</p><p>There may be someone screaming. It may be her.</p><p>Her mind gets an idea that just might work. He’s fighting across the Atlantic, but he has superspeed, right? He’ll make it.</p><p>He has to.</p><p>She inhales as best as she can, and yells for Kon.</p><p>When she runs out of air, she inhales again and repeats, screaming his name over and over again.</p><p>The ground gets closer, and nothing has changed except her vocal chords, which hurt a little more.</p><p>She closes her eyes, accepting her fate.</p><p>Then, a whoosh of air in her ear, and there are warm, solid arms wrapped around her and she is not falling anymore.</p><p>Marinette lets out a sob of relief, heart skittering in her chest, and buries her face in Kon’s neck as he slowly flies towards the ground.</p><p>“Don’t worry, chérie.” His voice is warm and smooth and relaxing in her ear. “I’ve got you.”</p><p>.o0o.</p><p>She nervously toes at the ground, scuffing her battered pink Converses against the ground as she leads Kon into her room in the Tower, secluded and private so what she’s about to say isn’t overheard. (Because <em> some people </em>, like a certain Bat, can’t quash their curiosity.)</p><p>“What is it?” Kon asks as soon as the door shuts behind him, but she holds up a hand, silencing him as she digs out a bug from the underside of her desk, another plastered behind a framed photograph, and takes another out from the space in between her mattress and bed frame.</p><p>Marinette crushes them under the heel of her foot, then turns back to him, feeling all her brisk, businesslike demeanor leave again, leaving a nervous, stuttering girl behind. Ladybug dissipates, and now she’s just plain old Marinette.</p><p>“I- I have something to say.” She breathes in, and out, steeling herself. “And I know you’ll probably want to interrupt me, but just please, wait for me to finish.”</p><p>Kon nods, radioactive blue eyes focusing on her with a piercing gaze.</p><p>Marinette takes another breath, then begins. “Kon, I-I like you. I really, <em> really </em> like you, and not in the platonic sense. When you’re around, it’s like the weight on my shoulders is a bit lighter. Your mere presence brightens my day, and your smile makes me want to smile too. When I’m with you, I’m happy, Kon, and I’ve held it in for months now but I don’t think I can anymore and you probably don’t feel the same way but that’s okay I just needed to get it out and let you hear it, don’t feel guilty about it because it’s fine that you don’t return these feelings-”</p><p>“Okay, I know you said not to interrupt,” Kon cuts off her panicked rambling. “But who ever said anything about me not returning them?”</p><p>“Wh-what?” Marinette breathes, barely even there, but she knows his superhearing picks up on it. Her face burns, and she feels kind of like she’s floating, like that one time they went to the Kents’ farm in Kansas and he flew her up at night to see the stars-</p><p>“What I’m saying is that I like you too, Marinette.” Kon smiles that brilliant, slightly lopsided smile, the one that he gave her all those months ago above a Kansas field, and her heart stutters. She knows he hears it too, because his grin widens.</p><p>“What do you say? Wanna give this dating thing a try?” He asks, and Marinette realizes that she hasn’t responded yet.</p><p>“Y-you don’t mind that I don’t- you know-”</p><p>“What, that you’re asexual and don’t want to kiss?” He snorts. “Of course not.”</p><p>“But you and Cassie k-kissed all the time.” Marinette points out.</p><p>Kon lifts an eyebrow. “And? Cassie wasn’t ace.” He points out. “I respect your choices and preferences, Marinette. I don’t need to be able to kiss someone to survive.”</p><p>Those words part the dark storm clouds in her mind, and all of a sudden, she can’t stop the sun from shining, unable to help the smile that breaks out on her face.</p><p>“Yes.” She says, and he smiles again, eyes sparkling like the stars all those nights ago when she first felt her heart skip a beat.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>as usual, you can harass me on tumblr or send in requests/prompts <a href="https://m3owww.tumblr.com/">here! </a></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. what's cookin', good lookin'? | jasonette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>imdaqueenie: Could you do a 23 Jason x Marinette? I also want to say I really love your fanfics.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ahahaha my favorite ship to whump, but this one is fluffy. oh well.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Of course, it’s just her luck that she stumbles across a Gotham vigilante bleeding to death from not one, not two, but three stab wounds in the alley across from the fabric store she’s headed to.</p><p>And obviously, she’s not about to let him die.</p><p>So she gets Trixx to cast an illusion so no passerby sees a five foot girl carrying a man who must weigh at least 230 pounds without breaking a sweat through a blue portal, then asks Kaalki to open a portal home.</p><p>Marinette scoops up the vigilante, a red bat splayed across grey kevlar and red helmet hiding his features, and enters her bathroom, setting the guy down in the bathtub (because she is <em>not</em> getting blood all over her apartment, okay?), grabbing her medical kit, setting up a blood transfusion because there was a lot of blood in that alleyway (this guy is so lucky she’s a universal donor) and getting to work disinfecting his wounds.</p><p>Just as she’s about to start stitching them up, the vigilante awakens.</p><p>Marinette would probably have been more impressed if the first thing out of his mouth wasn’t “What’s cookin’, good lookin’?”</p><p>She threads a needle. “Oh, you know, just preparing to sew up the three stab wounds in your torso that made you bleed half to death in an alleyway. Nothing major.”</p><p>The mystery guy (she’s already calling him Red Helmet in her head) hums, still only halfway conscious. “Sounds kinda major to me. Ya shouldn’t be sewing stab wounds.”</p><p>“Well then, maybe you shouldn’t get stabbed.” Marinette retorts, tying the first laceration shut. “You didn’t seriously expect me to just let you die in the alleyway next to my favorite fabric store, did you?”</p><p>“This is Gotham, babe. Nobody even blinks an eye here.” Red Helmet mutters.</p><p>She doesn’t really know how to respond to that depressing statement. “That’s not right.” She finally says.</p><p>Red Helmet snorts, then winces. “Tell me ‘bout it.”</p><p>Marinette ties off the second wound. “So, do you have a name, Mr. Vigilante Person? Is it Red Helmet? Because that’s what I’ve been calling you in my head.”</p><p>“What? No!” Apparently-Not-Red-Helmet protests. “It’s Red Hood! And I’m an antihero!”</p><p>She waves her non-dominant hand lazily. “Eh, technicalities. Besides, Red Hood is stupid. You don’t even wear a hood. I’m going to call you Red Helmet.”</p><p>“But it’s Red Hood!”</p><p>“I’m calling you Red Helmet and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it, monsieur.” She ties off the third stab wound and leans back, admiring her handiwork. “There. Now I just have to bandage them, and you’re free to leave after your blood transfusion finishes, which should be in another two and a half hours.”</p><p>“Two and a half hours?” Red Helmet yelps, twisting around and finally noticing the IV in his arm. “I can’t stay in a civilian apartment for two and a half hours!”</p><p>Marinette rolls her eyes. “Will all due respect, Red Helmet, your average civilian doesn’t have the medical equipment necessary to set up a blood transfusion.”</p><p>“It’s Red Hood.” He barks. “And if you’re not a civilian, what are you?”</p><p>“Not a criminal, if that’s what you’re asking.” She grins. “You’re a Bat, aren’t you? Find out.”</p><p>Red Helmet leans back in her bathtub, grumbling. “How’d you even know my blood type, anyway?”</p><p>“I’m a universal donor.” Marinette tucks the last of her supplies back into her massive medkit and puts it back in her cabinet, stretching and feeling her spine crack. “Would you like something to occupy the next 150 minutes? A book, maybe? I have a large selection of classical literature.”</p><p>“Do you have Pride and Prejudice?” Red Helmet asks, somehow managing to look like a cute puppy even with the helmet on, and she smiles.</p><p>“Of course I do. I’m not a heathen.” Marinette goes to her living room, plucks her copy of the book off of her bookshelf, and returns to the bathroom to hand it to him. He takes it with eager but gentle hands, flipping to the first page and immediately buries himself in the book.</p><p>Marinette exits the room and sets a timer for two and a half hours, then settles at her desk to do some designing. All too soon, the timer goes off, and she returns to the bathroom.</p><p>“Time’s up.” She announces, and Red Helmet’s head snaps up. “You’re free to go now.”</p><p>“Already?” He asks, taking out the IV with precision that can only come from prior experience.</p><p>Marinette nods. “Would you like to exit through the front door, the balcony, or do you have a specific window in mind?”</p><p>“Balcony will do, thanks.” Red Helmet says breezily, not realizing that she was joking. Sort of. The sarcasm was heavy in her words.</p><p>She opens her balcony doors, and lets him out, the cool night breeze ruffling her clothes as she looks out over the Gotham skyline.</p><p>Red Helmet whistles, an odd sound when coming through the audio filters of his helmet. “Wow, that’s some view you got there.”</p><p>Marinette shrugs. “Yeah, well, you get paid very nicely when you’re Jagged Stone’s designer and get commissions from all sorts of big names.”</p><p>The helmet’s eye slits narrow. “Wait, seriously? You’re Jagged Stone’s mystery designer? MDC? And you’re apparently not a civilian, as you said earlier? Who the fuck are you?”</p><p>Marinette grins and says nothing, simply booting him off her balcony and giving a cheerful little wave as he curses and fires his grapple, swinging away.</p><p>A week later, Minette purposefully runs into Red Helmet along his usual patrol route, handing him a card with ‘MDC’ emblazoned on it in curling golden script, with a phone number and a smiley face drawn underneath.</p><p>That night, her phone buzzes with a text.</p><p>
  <em>Unknown Number: What’s cookin’, good lookin’?</em>
</p><p>She smiles as her fingers tap out a reply.</p><p>
  <em>M: That’s the second time you’ve used it on me.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>M: You have got to find some better pick-up lines.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Unknown Number: Well, it worked, didn’t it?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>M: Yeah, I suppose it did.</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>as usual, come annoy me to distract me from whatever boring class I'm in on</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. family is who you choose | platonic daminette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: Can you write a fic we’re Bruce adopts Marinette after her parents disowns her because they believed Lila lies and she is friends with Damian</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So I did some research and there is no legal way for Tom and Sabine to disown Marinette, which means that something would have to happen that made CPS declare them unfit parents and remove Marinette from their care, since her becoming an emancipated minor would kind of ruin the entire point of having Bruce adopt her in the first place.</p><p>WARNING: implied child abuse.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The catalyst is Lila, as it usually is.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her lies bring dirt to their bakery’s pristine reputation, one that her parents had worked so hard to build up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They lose customers, and slowly, their daily profit drops. And drops. And drops.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the liar wasn’t done, no.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She told Marinette’s parents that she was bullying her, that Marinette was skipping class to see her ‘secret boyfriend’ who was a delinquent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn’t help that the rest of the class backed up Lila’s claims, and that Marinette couldn’t exactly explain that she occasionally missed class during potential world-ending events that required Ladybug to show. She also couldn’t explain that she and Damian were actually just friends (wow does she sound like Adrien) and that Damian was in a happy relationship with Jon Kent. Nope, because then she’d also have to explain how on Earth she’d managed to befriend the youngest child of the world’s richest man, who happens to live across the Atlantic Ocean in America.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Marinette highly doubted ‘he’s an illegal vigilante from Gotham City whom I met while masquerading as the polka-dotted hero who’s been saving this city for years because he was following a lead in Paris and I thought he was a new villain of some sort’ would go over with her parents.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she accepts it, when her parents start to use her as an outlet to vent their frustrations, because in a way, it is her fault.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If she hadn’t antagonized Lila, they wouldn’t be in this situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, the first one to notice the bruises doesn’t even normally live in France.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Damian is a Bat, after all, and the Bats can spot bruises covered by makeup from miles away, no matter how good one thinks their coverage is. It’s what they’re trained to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sees the black eye she thought she hid quite well when she accepts his request to video chat, and masks his frown after a moment, but Marinette catches it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s what she’s trained to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next day, Damian is waiting for her when school ends, and he walks her back to the bakery before buying everything in the display cases and leaving a thousand dollars in the tip jar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her parents don’t lay a finger on her for two weeks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next time he spots a bruise, he has Jon fly him over almost immediately. A familiar knocking pattern sounds on her skylight, and she quickly lets them in before anyone sees. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Damian demands to know the full extent of her injuries. Judging by Jon’s poorly hidden facial expressions, he’d already scanned her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette sighs and takes off her shirt, knowing that there was nothing that Damian hadn’t already seen because of various emergencies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Besides, both Damian and Jon were gayer than a pair of rainbows. It was fine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next day, she is removed from Tom and Sabine’s care, the process obviously sped up with Bruce Wayne’s seemingly infinite wealth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette ends up living in the Manor with the Waynes, also a side effect of Bruce Wayne’s immense wealth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though she was already familiar with the Bats, she is now fully incorporated into their dynamics, and after the third week, starts joining them on patrol with the Black Cat, her dark suit seemingly made of the shadows themselves. (Maybe they are. Magic is weird, and she chooses not to question it.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two months after she is temporarily placed in Bruce Wayne’s care, she is asked if she would like to be adopted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette thinks of the bakery, of a lonely child who would do anything for affection, and then of Bruce, of Alfred, of Dick and Jason and Tim and Cass and Steph and Damian and Duke, all crammed into one wing of a Manor that could easily house over 100 people, of loud laughter and the feeling of leaping over rooftops with people at her back, of movie nights with warm bodies pressed against hers and of the one time she fell asleep in Cass’ lap, and the other girl just sat there for six hours without moving a muscle, letting her sleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette thinks of Paris, with her biological parents, then of Gotham, with people that feel more like family than Tom and Sabine have in a long time, and thinks that the answer is obvious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looks up into Bruce Wayne’s blue eyes, hopefulness concealed by a neutral mask that would fool anyone else, but he has trained her to spot these things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” Marinette says, and smiles when her siblings in everything but legal documents (and soon, those too) leap out of their half-hearted hiding places and cheer, piling onto them in one massive group hug, Bruce making an </span>
  <em>
    <span>oof</span>
  </em>
  <span> as Jason lands on top of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Damian ends up right next to her, and Marinette twists, blue eyes meeting green. She beams at him, and he smiles back, satisfied with the outcome.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Damian</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She mouths to him over Dick and Stephanie’s excited squeals. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>come bother me on <a href="https://m3owww.tumblr.com/">tumblr. </a>I love it when people do that.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. dance with me/i've waited for this moment for a long time | marijon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: Could you do 46 and 58 with Marijon please?<br/>46- "Dance with me." 58- "I've waited for this moment for a long time."</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so in the span of about 24 hours, I went from one ask in my inbox to eight. I'm working on them, but it's gonna be a while. (hopefully, not another two months- sorry to the anon who's been waiting since august and finally got their request lol.)</p><p>also, I started planning a dickinette animatic based off of that one fic I have called 'tightrope', since that song's the only one with lyrics that I listen to. whoops. I have a newfound respect for animators.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>If I were the moon </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>and you were the night,</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I would perfectly fit</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>in your embrace.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>-Alexandra Vasilu</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It was one of those days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The kind of day where she wakes up screaming, begging, pleading for her partner’s life, and it is still not enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The kind of day where everything seems to go wrong, and all her luck seems to fail her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The kind of day where people’s words sting more than they should, where every accidental nudge is like a harsh slap to the face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The kind of day that nothing, no one, could brighten.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette is tired of those days, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to move from the kitchen table, couldn’t find the energy to make herself do anything other than sit here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She hears a key insert into the lock of the front door, hears someone open it and step inside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her roommate shrugs his backpack off, letting it his the floor with a thump and a relieved sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She knows the exact moment when he spots her, because everything becomes silent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mari?” He asks, and she merely hums, a toneless sound that takes all of her energy to create.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s one of those days, isn’t it?” His blue eyes glimmer with sympathy and understanding- they have both lost much to the hero life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She barely twitches her head when she nods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turns around, fiddling with something, before soft classical- Debussy’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>Claire de Lune</span>
  </em>
  <span>- filters through the bluetooth speaker on the kitchen counter, and then a pale hand is outstretched in front of her, connected to an arm, which is attached to a body, which has a head, which holds a face with bright blue eyes and a soft smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on.” Jon says. “Dance with me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, it may be one of those days, but Marinette Dupain-Cheng would do anything for Jonathan Samuel Kent. That was the one truth, the one golden rule- no matter what, she loved him, and he always came first. Always.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she takes his hand, feeling his warm fingers wrap around her cold ones, and lets him pull her up out of her chair, until they stand, facing each other, his hand on her waist and her hand on his shoulder, their other hands clasped together, and they dance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They move slowly, at first, with the melancholy flow of the music, but as the value of the notes get shorter and shorter and the arpeggios move faster and faster, they do too, spinning and twirling and doing all sorts of ridiculous moves because nobody is around to see them- it’s just him and her, in their own little world, free of judgement, dancing in a kitchen showered by moonlight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the piece ends, decrescendoing into nothing, they are both breathless, his chest rising and falling under her hands, hair windswept like he just flew across the country, her cheeks flushed pink from exertion. She exhales a laugh, and then realizes she is smiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course it would be him that brought her out of one of those days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A little bit of daring and courage flits through her as she looks up into her roommate’s blue eyes, glowing an ethereal blue in the silver moonlight, and she stands on her toes to close the gaps between their lips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It is short, light, and quick, but it sends another spark of warmth running through her veins, battling at the ice that is always trying to take over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t kiss back- she didn’t give him a chance to- but he also didn’t move away, either, and she knows he could have even without his superspeed, because she advanced slow enough for him to be able to pull back if he wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jon laughs a little, a light, warm sound, and lowers his head until his forehead presses against hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve waited for this moment for a long time.” He says, and then the gap between their lips are nonexistent again as the ice inside her continues to melt, and she finds herself smiling into the kiss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It may be one of those days, but Marinette was wrong about one thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jon can and will always make days like these better.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>visit me on <a href="https://m3owww.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a> and bother me. I love it when people do that.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. this isn't goodbye/what did you expect? | platonic jasonette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>nathleigh: Can you do 22 and 75 with yoir ship of choice please?</p><p>22- “This isn’t goodbye.” 75- “What did you expect?” </p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>been tackling all of these instead of writing my other fics, but I don't really mind because they're great fun to do.</p><p>also, I planned out the first verse, chorus, and half of the second, for that animatic, but I've only drawn up to the first line in the chorus. hands are really hard and I'm kind of regretting picking the song I did lol.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This isn’t goodbye.” He whispers, her brother not in legal documents, but in every way that matters.</p><p>“I’ll see you again.” He says, ruffling her hair affectionately, just like he always did, before handing her the same package he gives her every week- food, money, and this time, a large hoodie too, because it is getting cold out and winter on the streets is hard.</p><p>She smiles and waves as he leaves the alley to find his real mother, knowing he will come back from Ethiopia, because he always comes back. He said he would see her again, and he always keeps his word.</p><p>The next week, he isn’t there.</p><p>She’s fine with that, really, she is. She had survived on the streets long before he started giving her those packages, she’d be fine.</p><p>She had forgotten that before those packages, she had him on the streets with her, that they would huddle together in the winter for added heat and team up to scavenge for food and supplies, because they always got more when working together. </p><p>It gets colder, and he hasn’t returned. She starts to get worried, but he alway comes back, she tells herself. He always comes back.</p><p>She clings to that hope like a lifeline.</p><p>Then, one day, two weeks after his disappearance, she finds a newspaper in the trash proclaiming his death.</p><p>And Marinette mourns Jason Peter Todd-Wayne on the floor of a grimy alley in the heart of the Bowery, hands tugging at the strings of his red hoodie.</p><p>She gets sloppy, and gets adopted as a result.</p><p>Suddenly, she’s in Paris, France, with a last name and a room above a bakery and… magical earrings that turn her into a superheroine.</p><p>Alright. Alright, she can deal with that.</p><p>Hawkmoth is defeated with time, she’s been in Paris for years, and then she is invited to join the Teen Titans, of all things. </p><p>She accepts, and moves into a ridiculous building shaped like a T. The couple who adopted her have no idea, of course.</p><p>She was always good at leaving without a trace.</p><p>But here, back in America, the memories are worse, and as a result, the nightmares are too.</p><p>She wakes up at least five times a week screaming for her older brother as the Joker beats him to death, her imagination filling in what that newspaper clipping couldn’t.</p><p>She spends those sleepless nights in the kitchen, baking, so that the others can at least wake up to wonderful treats.</p><p>On one of these nights, something is off, and she knows it the same way a street rat from Gotham knows when to stay, and when to run.</p><p>Tikki whispers that there’s someone in the hallway just outside the kitchen, waiting to ambush her. Transforming is out of the question- it is too bright, too loud, and more importantly, the intruder would be expecting it.</p><p>So she grabs her rolling pin, the nearest object, and spins to block the gloved fist centimeters away from her head, staring defiantly up into a red helmet with emotionless white lenses, which widen.</p><p>“Mari?”</p><p>Even through the audio filter, the voice is so familiar, the perfect tone, the Crime Alley accent, everything.</p><p>There was only one person who sounded like that, and he’s dead.</p><p>Or so she thought.</p><p>“Jay?” She asks, still gripping her rolling pin hard enough that her knuckles are bone white. <em> Just in case </em>, she tells herself.</p><p>The man reaches up and clicks something, the red helmet falling off with a soft hiss of air, revealing the same face she remembers, littered with new scars, eyes now bright green (?) and hair sporting a white streak, but it’s still him.</p><p>
  <em> It’s still him. </em>
</p><p>She drops the rolling pin and throws herself into him, arms wrapping around his torso as he makes a small <em> oof </em> sound, inhaling the scent of Crime Alley and cigarette smoke that always reminded her of him.</p><p>“You’re back.” She says, the sound muffled by his leather jacket and her own tears. “You’re back.” <em> He kept his word, after all. </em></p><p>She feels his laugh vibrate through her body as well, the sound hoarse but comforting. “What did you expect, Mari? I did say that it wasn’t goodbye, and I always keep my word.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>come to my <a href="https://m3owww.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a> to fight me, talk to me, or drop a request. please. it's nice interacting with human beings.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. you've shown me what love can feel like/when i'm with you, i'm happy | timari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: If your taking prompts could you do 36, or 83 for timinette or MariJon</p><p>36- “You’ve shown me what love can feel like.” 83- “When I’m with you, I’m happy.”</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>o_0</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Tim,</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>If you’re reading this, that means I’ve given up my role as Guardian. I am really, really sorry that you are now faced with an empty shell of me that does not recognize you, and I want you to know that the only reason I would ever give up everything, give up us, is if there was no other way out. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I know it’s not much consolation at all, if any, and you probably want to stop reading right about now, but I want you to understand, and this letter is the only way I can do it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tim, you’ve shown me what love can feel like. Every single day with you in it is significantly brighter than the others. You are the sunshine that parts the dark clouds that come with this hero life (and here, you’d spout some scientific explanation as to why sunlight doesn’t actually part clouds, and I’d listen to every word of it because I love it when you do that.)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I love you, Timothy Jackson Drake. I love you more than anything else in the world, and I need you to know that. Keep that knowledge with you, because I won’t be able to remind you. You mean everything to me, Tim. I know you tend to self-deprecate, and this is my daily reminder that you are an amazing, courageous, intelligent, and lovable human being, and that no matter how much of a waste of time you think you are, I will always find that every single second I spend with you is worth it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>When I’m with you, I’m happy. You make me feel bright and sparkly inside, the way I used to be before this whole hero thing, before all the trauma. You push everything bad to the back of my mind, and bring all the good memories forward. You make me the best version of myself I can be, so this is me, saying thank you.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you, Tim, for the late nights and early mornings spent on rooftops and in alleys, bringing justice to a city that desperately needs it. Thank you for all those mornings where you made me coffee and the nights we spent cuddling, watching the sunset. Thank you for the movie marathons and book recommendations and all the dates we’ve been on, from restaurant dinners to swimming with dolphins. Thank you for all the rambles you’ve given over the years, topics varying from quantum physics to banana peels, because they always make me smile.Thank you for comforting me when I wake you up with my screams, and for entering that coffee shop on the day we first met, just in time for me to run into you and spill my coffee all over your shirt.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you for everything, Tim, and goodbye.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Marinette Dupain-Cheng</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>...I am so sorry.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. trust | cassinette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For her, trust is a simple issue- if they lie, then they cannot be trusted.<br/>-<br/>But there is one person who is an exception to that rule, and she does not know why.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>okay but calling this ship 'cassinette' actually sounds so weird in my head for some reason?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>She is silent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Never heard unless she wants to, not even by aliens with superhearing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She is swift.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Moving easily from one side of the room to the next, appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye, so quick and quiet that sometimes people doubt that she’s human.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she’s only human.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She is a shadow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Graceful, elegant, sailing through the night on light feet, her skills honed to a fine point as she sweeps through the allies, taking down criminals in mere seconds before she’s gone again, having melted back into the darkness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She does not trust easily, at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She reads bodies, and bodies never lie, even as someone’s mouth moves and their vocal chords make unintelligible sounds that mean nothing to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No, she looks at the hulking figure of the Batman, filled with worry and concern and a genuine desire to help and do good, not a single centimeter of his body screaming dishonesty, and knows she can trust him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For her, trust is a simple issue- if they lie, then they cannot be trusted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her voice, her speech, is saved for those she trusts. The rest have never heard her speak, and never will.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And, since she comes across many liars, both at night and during the day, she doesn’t trust a lot of people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But there is one person who is an exception to that rule, and she does not know why.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reports of a magical disturbance in Paris send her on a mission to investigate, and on the first day, she finds herself standing in front of a bakery.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Upon entering, a wonderful blend of aromas from pastries she could never name hit her nose, and she smiles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s a girl at the counter, with dark hair and blue eyes and a brilliant smile that makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside, and she is delighted when the girl understands French Sign Language.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Right away, there is something off about her, she notes, as the girl turns around to grab a pastry. She acts as if she takes up too much space, as if she’s clumsy and constantly tripping, but her center of balance never shifts. It’s a facade, a mask, and there is something stronger, more powerful underneath it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Normally, she would not trust this girl. To do so would not be wise, as she could be the source of that disturbance that she is here to investigate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But there’s something about her, something about this girl’s sparkling eyes and warm smile that draw her in, make her want to open up to her and tell the girl all her deepest, darkest secrets and memories and fears, the ones that not even her family knows because they would never forgive the League if they did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She leaves the bakery that day with a delicious raspberry tart that could rival Alfred’s, a warmth pulsing through her veins, and a lot more confusion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It does not make sense until the next day, when a large purple thing that moves and acts like a baby is wailing at ear-shattering volumes and smashing entire buildings with his flailing fists, does she find her answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There are less shadows during the day, but still, it is easy to slip in and out through the dark patches, making her way to the scene and trying to figure out how to resolve this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A streak of red sails through the sky above her and drops down in front of the giant baby-thing, and though her face is covered by a mask, her body says it all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This is the bakery girl, she realizes, as the girl in red calls something and uses a newly-summoned red and black object to break something, catch a butterfly, and restore everything to normal. This is the powerful thing hiding underneath the surface.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl in red turns to her with that same smile she received yesterday, and she realizes that she’s stepped out of the shadows, the girl acting as a beacon, drawing her in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl says something, but she doesn’t pay attention to the sounds, instead reading her posture and limbs, which say hi-welcome-hello and send another wave of warm fuzziness through her body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looks into the girl’s blue eyes, the color of the sky, so large and pure, even after everything she must have seen, and cannot help but trust her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she smiles, and speaks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. please don't walk out that door/i won't let you | no ships</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Can I get a 3 and a 10 with Marinette parents being some what salty and believing Lila and when the learn the truth they try to get her back from the kents and Bruce is like 10 to them cause he is her godfather now</p><p>3-  “Please don’t walk out that door.” 10- “I won’t let you.”</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so it turns out that I'm not actually terrible at improv debates with no research beforehand, which is really interesting because I can only speak without social anxiety being a pain in the butt when I'm confident in what I'm saying, and that only happens when I do research. But I did win all of my improv rounds, so???</p><p>Disclaimer: I have no idea how transfer of guardianship works. Please bear with me here- half of what I wrote doesn’t make sense to myself, but I wasn’t really sure how else to fulfill the prompt.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They gave her up.</p><p>They willingly signed the papers that would temporarily transfer guardianship of her over to Clark and Lois.</p><p>Marinette expected them to, of course, but experiencing it for real was still a stinging slap to the face, no matter how horrible her parents were to her.</p><p>“Come on, Mari.” Jon’s hand is gentle on her shoulder, and his big blue eyes are looking down at her, even though she’s two years older. “Let’s go home.”</p><p>The flight back to the Kents’ apartment in the Metropolis couldn’t have been shorter. Clark and Lois give her time to unpack, but if she was being honest, there wasn’t really anything to unpack that wasn’t already present in the guest room that had slowly become hers over the last few months.</p><p>As the situation with her biological parents got worse (helped along by a certain liar), Marinette had simply stopped spending time in Paris, instead teleporting more and more to Titans Tower to hang out or train. </p><p>Jon, who had declared himself her brother a year prior, noticed, of course. He was the first, but everyone did after the first month. Damian got his father to jumpstart the process of removing her from her parents’ care, and in the meantime, Clark and Lois offered her the guest room.</p><p>Marinette takes the last item out of her pink backpack- a photo of her, Tom, and Sabine at the kitchen counter, taken by Nonna Gina. She's young in this picture, maybe seven or eight, and her face is frozen mid-laugh, entire body coated in flour from a bout of clumsiness. Tom and Sabine are laughing with her.</p><p>She stares at it until she feels like she’s on the verge of developing heat vision, then tears the photo in half, separating Tom and Sabine from her.</p><p>The part with two people goes into the garbage, and the laughing girl is pinned to her bulletin board.</p><p>Healing takes time, and sometimes, it feels as if she has all the time in the world.</p><p>She has a support system now- a brother, people that are more like parents than her real ones, a team at her back, and her godfather is the freaking Batman.</p><p>Yep. Bruce Wayne, the richest man in the world, who dresses up as a giant bat at night to terrify Gotham’s worst into wetting themselves, declared himself her godfather, and really, who’s going to say no to Batman?</p><p>Damian and Jon suspect that he’s just irritated that Clark claimed the newest black haired, blue eyed child with a tragic backstory before he could.</p><p>Healing takes time, and she has so much time.</p><p>Slowly but surely, she heals, and moves on, with a new family and newly forged bonds that are already so much stronger than the ones she had with her blood relatives ever were.</p><p>Then, everything goes to shit again.</p><p>Tom and Sabine finally learn that Lila was lying, that everything she was accused of doing were just that- mere accusations. They come to Metropolis, knocking on their apartment door while Bruce and Damian are over for lunch.</p><p>“I’ll get it.” Marinette offers, then freezes when she opens the door and sees who’s on the other side.</p><p>She doesn’t react, rooted in place by Tom and Sabine’s stares, until she hears Jon from the dining room. “Mari? Is everything alright?”</p><p>Instead of a verbal response, she taps her finger against her thigh frantically in Morse Code. <em> T-O-M A-N-D S-A-B-I-N-E. H-E-L-P. </em></p><p>The message must be relayed pretty fast, because everyone is crowding behind her back in an instant.</p><p>She doesn’t remember much of the actual argument between her biological parents and her chosen ones, only that she snaps to attention when Sabine speaks her name.</p><p>“Marinette.” She says coldly, with a sense of finality. “Come with us. You are going home now.”</p><p>Her brain screams <em> no </em>, that Metropolis, the Kents, are her home, and that Paris was nothing more than a cage, but her body, still terrified of the consequences (they never laid a hand on her, but your own parents believing you over a liar and the subsequent emotional and verbal abuse leaves its mark), starts to follow, feet stepping forward until another voice, one that isn’t Clark or Lois, rings out.</p><p>“Please don’t walk out that door, Marinette.” The voice is so different, yet the exact same as Batman’s low growl as Bruce Wayne’s blue eyes bore into her soul.</p><p>“Nonsense.” Tom snaps. “She is our daughter. We have every right to take her back.”</p><p>“I won’t let you.” </p><p>Despite it obviously being a response to Tom’s statement, Marinette gets the feeling that those words were directed at her instead.</p><p>The billionaire pulls out a cell phone, dialing a number. “Hey, Tim? Yeah, do me a favor. Are Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng currently in the clear to take back their daughter?” A pause. “Okay then. I see. Mhm. Thanks, Timmy.”</p><p>He hangs up and glares at the couple. “You’re not legally authorized to remove Marinette from Clark and Lois’ care.”</p><p>A strong but loose hand comes to rest on her shoulder. “Lois and I see Marinette as our own daughter.” Clark says calmly, his words filling her with warmth. “If you want to take back guardianship, we will fight for her.”</p><p>“And they’ll have Wayne Enterprises’ legal team at their back.” Bruce chimes in, and she can’t help the smile that splits her face there.</p><p>“We’d actually like to make that guardianship permanent.” A smirk curls across Lois’ lips, and Marinette is reminded of why this woman has gone toe-to-toe with death so many times and made it out alive. “It doesn’t have to be settled in court, but if you wanted to test that, I’m sure we could arrange for it to happen.”</p><p>Marinette decides that she’d like to add her own piece. “Oh, yes, please do. I’d love to testify against Tom and Sabine in court.” She smiles, the damage done to her just by their presence already being fixed by the steady support behind her.</p><p>They visibly flinch when Marinette addresses them by their names and not ‘Maman’ and ‘Papa’ like she used to. Good. That’s nothing compared to how she felt in those last few months.</p><p>Sabine smiles, though it doesn’t reach her eyes. “That will not be necessary. Have a nice day.”</p><p>And with that, she and her husband turn around and walk away. Damian takes the opportunity to slam the door and make sure all of the locks are secured before sniffing, scrunching his nose up in disgust.</p><p>“The nerve of them!” He seethes. “How dare they come here and pretend nothing is wrong to try and take her back!”</p><p>“Thank you.” Marinette says to Clark and Lois. “You didn’t have to pretend that you wanted to adopt me though.”</p><p>“Who said anything about pretending?” Lois replies easily, and the beam that splits Marinette’s face is like a blinding ray of sunshine as she flings herself forward into her family’s arms.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>come bother me on <a href="https://m3owww.tumblr.com/"> tumblr </a>to drop a request, have a conversation, re-read stuff, note my ATLA obsession, or look at my mediocre art! or, to just look at my new black-and-red theme for Spooky Season!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. whoopsie | daminette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: Mari yeets Robin(Damian) off a roof and just crumbles in embarrassment. Go with more detail! :) 🐞\ 🛕🦜 🏢| -</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I decided to try Wattpad as well, discovered that someone already uses m3owww there, and now i'm m3owwww with four 4 w's. -_-</p><p>Also, I want to move everything there too, but I also have an aversion to finding photos off the internet to use so I'm hand drawing my covers. One by one. For EVERTHING. As if I didn't have enough work already.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The city, while never completely asleep, is peaceful at night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette idly swings her feet as they dangle off of the roof of her apartment building, located on the better side of Gotham, staring up at the starless sky.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A blanket of darkness surrounds the city, interrupted by the occasional light from a window. It is quiet, but never silent, the humming of engines and chatter from the partiers and the drunk, the sounds of a fistfight in an alley.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Perhaps it is because it’s so quiet, that she startles so much when someone behind her speaks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good evening.” A voice says behind her, and she instinctively grabs the person’s ankle and flips them over the shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, she realizes that she’s sitting on the roof of a twenty-five story apartment building, and just threw someone over the edge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my god oh my god ohmygod!” Marinette covers her mouth with her hand in shock. “I just threw someone off of a twenty-five story building. I just killed someone ohmygod!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A soft </span>
  <em>
    <span>shink</span>
  </em>
  <span> sound catches her attention, and she snaps out of her panicking long enough to note a figure in a red tunic, black cape and hood, and a sheathed katana tucking a grappling hook back into his belt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Robin looks a bit disheveled, hair askew, and something clicks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>mon dieu</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I just threw </span>
  <em>
    <span>Robin</span>
  </em>
  <span> off of a roof.” She moans, feeling her face flame bright red as she hides it in her hands. “I would almost prefer accidentally throwing a civilian over.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Robin says nothing, simply raising an eyebrow. Or she thinks he does, anyway. It’s kind of hard to tell, with that domino mask.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Key word being almost.” Marinette emphasizes, the intensity of his gaze making her shiver a little. “I’m really sorry about that, monsieur Robin. I’d promise it won’t happen again, but it might if you startle me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I would not worry about a second instance.” Robin has a light British accent, she notes, mixed with something Middle Eastern? She can’t pinpoint the exact region. “The next time it happens. I will be ready.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Well, good. That’s good. I noticed you said ‘the next time’ instead of ‘if’, like you were planning on stopping here again? I don’t know, maybe it was just poorly phrased, because I’m pretty sure you stopped here because you thought I was about to jump but I promise I’m just enjoying the night air because I have trouble sleeping sometimes and there’s really no reason for you to come back-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There is.” Robin interrupts her rambling, face giving away absolutely nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have just bested me. I have lost.” He explains seriously, and then the corner of his mouth ticks upwards in a tiny smile that promises challenge. “And I refuse to lose.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. my hero (brings me coffee) | timari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Neakco: I see a lot of Damienette where Mari is set up on a blind date (kidnapped) with Adrien by Alya or the girl squad. Then Damien has to come save her. I am wondering if you could do this idea with Timinette instead. Minimal salt, maybe a bit of angst because Tim has insecurities about whether he is good enough for Mari. Preferably a happy ending. But overall completely open to your creativity because i enjoy your writing.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Guess who's now confined to her house after an undisclosed student at her school was confirmed with COVID?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Mari: The girls are asking me to meet them at a fancy restaurant again.</span>
  </em>
</p><p><em><span>Mari:</span></em> <em><span>Like I don’t know what they’re trying to do at this point.</span></em></p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mari: Come rescue me? Please?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tim: Of course.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tim: Want me to bring a coffee?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mari: Please. I’m going to need it after this.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tim: Done. Send me the time and place.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mari: [Image]</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mari: 6:45 pm.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tim: Got it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mari: Thanks, love you! Hope that meeting doesn’t bore you to death.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tim: It can’t bore me to death if I’m already dead.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tim: Love you too.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Marinette taps her fingers nervously on her legs underneath the table as Adrien prattles on about something or other, sneaking a glance at her phone. </span>
  <em>
    <span>6:43. Two more minutes.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“-and I said that was absolutely ridiculous, and they laughed at me! Can you believe that, Marinette?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She snaps back to attention. “What? No, of course not! They have no clue what they’re talking about!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That seems to be the right thing to say, because the blond’s chest puffs out as he preens, obviously pleased with the stroking to his ego.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>6:44. Sixty seconds.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyway, I told them that…” Adrien is off again, and Marinette takes the opportunity to discreetly scan her surroundings again, noting Alya and Nino in poor disguises at the table across from them, Alix and Rose at another, and Mylene and Juleka behind them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She made sure to choose a seat where she could see the entrance, and it pays off when she sees Tim enter, dressed in his work clothes (because the suits he wears to work are more than enough for a restaurant, even of this caliber), one hand holding her usual coffee order- six shots of espresso, a mountain of whipped cream, sprinkles, and an enormous amount of sugar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette sighs happily before going to greet him. She loves this man more than she loves her coffee, and that’s saying a lot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Mon canard!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” She greets, immediately capturing his lips with hers. So maybe it was a tad aggressive. Sue her. It was hard dealing with Adrien and the girls, okay?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Mari.” He says back, a smile pulling on his lips. “Hope it wasn’t too bad.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was just about to reply </span>
  <em>
    <span>it’s so much better now that you’re here</span>
  </em>
  <span> when she’s pulled aside by Alya, whose floppy hat has been discarded and whose face is now twisted with rage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the heck, Marinette? You can’t just go up to random people and kiss them, especially when you’re on a date with someone else! How are you ever going to get together with Adrien if you keep on doing things like this? Besides, do you even know who you just kissed? That was Timothy Drake-Wayne! The co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises and the son of the richest man in the world!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette raises an eyebrow. “Let me make something clear. I am not interested in Adrien. I do not want to date him, I do not want to get together with him, and I do not want to be around him. It is your schemes that dragged me here, to this place, to go on a ‘date’ with him. And yes, I do know who I just kissed. Is kissing my boyfriend illegal now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wh-what?” Alya sputters. “There’s no way that he’s your-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Boyfriend?” Tim interrupts, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. Marinette grins a little goofily at him. He literally could not be more perfect. How she ended up with Tim, despite him being way out of her league (and all of his attempts to convince her otherwise), is still a mystery. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m afraid that part’s true.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With that declaration, he pulls her in for another kiss, and she leans into it, kissing back with fervor and a bit of desperation because between civilian lives and their nightly outings, it’s like they never have time to just be with each other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They end up getting kicked out of the restaurant for ‘disturbing the customers’ with their PDA, and Wayne Enterprises’ PR team is going to hate them tomorrow, but for now, she is content to sit on Tim’s balcony, snuggled up into his side with a blanket wrapped around their shoulders, and sip her amazing coffee that her boyfriend knows by heart, despite it taking thirty seconds to recite.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Until he takes it away, and declares that she needs to sleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hypocrite.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. i can't sleep, can i stay here? | timari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: Could you do a number 17 timinette?</p><p>17- “I can’t sleep, can I stay here?”</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>two timari's in a row, but hey, I will die with this ship.<br/>-----------<br/>Kind of unrelated, but I relate to Tim Drake on a spiritual level. Parents that set absurdly high expectations, neglected of attention as a child, too much brainpower with nothing to put it to (hence the writing of all this fanfiction ahhhhh), never gets enough sleep to function, and a huge dependency on caffeine. </p><p>Oh, and short.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Tap tap. Click-tap. Click-tap-click. Click-click. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>His head snaps up at the first tap on his window, work momentarily forgotten as he identifies the Morse code.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>M-A-R-I. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Simple, but a good way to identify people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim walks over to the window and opens it, letting Minette slide through the window with a feline grace before detransforming in a burst of green light.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t sleep. Can I stay here?” She asks. The bags under her eyes are larger than his, looking almost bruised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nightmares.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The problem with being a vigilante- every little mistake, every single injury, every death, every loss, they all stay with you forever, always in the back of your mind, haunting you. And you’re kept awake by these whispers, if you’d just been faster, if you’d moved them out of the way, if you’d figured out the trap earlier, maybe they’d still be alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And when you do go to sleep, the memories and visions are the only things you dream of.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim smiles. “Of course. You don’t need to ask, you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette gives him a grateful smile. “Thank you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim glances at his laptop, where a cold case is still open, then at Marinette, drooping with exhaustion, almost swaying on her feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s not even a fight. Marinette automatically wins.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Want to watch Mulan?” He asks, and she beams, blue eyes lighting up. Tim feels his heart skip a beat at her smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can we?” She sounds so hopeful, and even if he could say no before, he definitely wouldn’t be able to now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Timothy Drake-Wayne has one weakness: Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Not that she knows that, of course.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead of replying, he turns on his TV and sits down on his couch, opening Mulan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette happily sits down next to him, immediately curling into his side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim desperately hopes that the dim lighting is enough to hide the blush that is dusting his cheeks now, if the heat in his face is anything to go by.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He carefully wraps an arm around her as the movie begins, tracing small circles into her back as Mulan cleverly uses her resources to have her chores do themselves. She sighs a little in response and snuggles closer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time Mulan has discovered Mushu, Marinette is asleep, head on his shoulder, a peaceful expression on her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim’s shoulder is going numb. He doesn’t care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He leans down and gently kisses her forehead, lips brushing over her skin for a fleeting moment before leaving again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sleep well, Mari.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Weird question:<br/>Tim Drake canonically has an IQ of 142. According to the comics, that means he has genius-level intellect. </p><p>However, the minimum IQ you need to be considered a genius is 160 in real life.</p><p>I have 15 more IQ points than Tim Drake, putting me at 157. Still not a genius. But if Tim, at 142, is a genius in the comics, then if I was in the DCU, I would be considered a genius.</p><p>But the question is, <em>Is Tim Drake a genius?</em> Because if yes, then I'm one too. If I'm not considered a genius, having missed the cutoff by 3 points, then Tim isn't one either, because he'll have missed the mark by 18 points.</p><p>I hate comic book science. It breaks my brain.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. please don't do this/you meant too much to me | platonic timari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>How about #34 and #9 on the fluff/angst list?Ship is yours to decide</p><p>34- “Please don’t do this.” 9- “You meant too much to me.” | Platonic Timari</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>third timari in a row? maaaaaaybe. do I regret it? NOPE.</p><p>Note: reverse robins au, where Tim was the one captured by Joker instead, choosing to take his own life instead of break under torture. Marinette, having given up LB post Hawkmoth’s defeat, chooses to take up her dead brother’s mantle after seeing Bruce spiral. She is also Bruce’s biological child in this au.</p><p>
  <b>TW: Suicide Mention</b>
</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Her father and Alfred are being increasingly shifty about the Red Hood, abruptly stopping conversations when she enters the room and changing the subject when she brings up the mysterious man who’s been picking off the corrupted people in this city.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she makes a plan to look into it in her own time, carefully watching and observing to find a free time slot, and seizes the opportunity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dad is at a WE meeting because Lucius threatened him with no gadgets for a month if he didn’t show again, Alfred is asleep (because he is actually human, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary), and Damian is in Bludhaven with Jon, both working their respective day jobs as an officer in the BPD and a journalist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette silently logs into the Batcomputer, bypassing the security on Hood’s file with a little help from Oracle (hey, Steph was being kept out of the dark too, and they were both curious.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She reads the basic information, and scrolls down to the DNA section.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her blood runs cold when she sees the information listed there, because how can it be a match?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s dead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Captured by the Joker, tortured near the breaking point, before taking his own life with a shard of broken glass to preserve their secrets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She watched them lower his body into the ground. Watched as his friends and family stood there, under the clear blue sky, which seemed too pretty for such a terrible day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Watched as his teammates broke down around his grave, as Bruce’s face crumpled when everyone else is gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Watched Damian, two weeks later, finally show up and leave a single purple hyacinth, kneeling in front of the headstone and tracing the letter with a single finger, head bowed, before leaving. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She searched up the meaning of the flower. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I am sorry, please forgive me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She mourned him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mourned a brother, so kind and intelligent, who never really knew how much he meant to all of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She has her own suspicions about how he was captured in the first place, but pointing fingers would do more harm than good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her father spiraled again, after he died.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t want to do it. Didn’t want to introduce a new Robin, and slowly let the world forget about the second. Robin should have died with Tim.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Batman will not stop, and as long as he keeps fighting, he’ll need a Robin to hold him back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette dons the costume, two months after they bury him, and tries to forget that this uniform, his spare, still smells like him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s wearing a dead boy’s clothes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alfred helps her make a new one after that first night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually, he does accept her as Robin. He trains her harder than he did both Damian and Tim.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pushes through.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And now, four years later, there’s evidence proclaiming that he’s alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alive, and on a killing spree, weeding out Gotham’s corrupt at the very center, strategically taking people out to topple the system.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A laugh escapes her, even as her shoulders shake with tears, because the methods are so familiar, so </span>
  <em>
    <span>Tim</span>
  </em>
  <span>, that she doesn’t know how she didn’t notice earlier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She asks Jason to cover for her that night. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He agrees without any questions, seeing the serious look on her face. Marinette has never been more grateful for the boy she and Dad found stealing the tires of the Batmobile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After Batman leaves (Robin is benched until Red Hood is taken care of, whatever that means), and she pretends to go to bed, she opens her closet and pushes against the hidden panel in the back wall, revealing a spare uniform.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Robin escapes out her window, even though she knows that Alfred will have been alerted by the window opening.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Too bad for them, though, because she removed all the trackers except the emergency beacon, which can only be activated from her side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Red Hood is elusive, but she knows his tricks. She keeps up with him as he turns corner after corner, jumps from building to building, until he stops on the roof of Wayne Enterprises.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Robin.” He says, helmet filtering out any signs that it’s her brother underneath. “But you’re not really Robin, are you? You’re wearing a dead boy’s clothes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She can’t help it, she flinches at how casually he speaks of his own death.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tim.” She tugs at the uniform, which has never fit right, despite it being tailored to her exact measurements. “What happened to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened? I </span>
  <em>
    <span>died</span>
  </em>
  <span>, that’s what happened.” The helmet comes off with a click and a hiss of air, and then it’s just her brother, older, eyes violent green, face twisted into a sneer. “I went off to follow the lead on the Joker myself, since Big Bird shut the door in my face and told me it wouldn’t amount to anything, got myself captured, and ended my own life to preserve </span>
  <em>
    <span>their</span>
  </em>
  <span> secrets. But you should know all of that, Replacement.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The nickname is like a dagger to the heart. “I never wanted to replace you, the same way you didn’t want to replace Damian.” She says steadily, staring straight into his eyes even as her heart skitters frantically. “I was keeping Robin’s legacy alive.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Robin should have died with me.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know as much as I do that Batman needs a Robin, and Batman would not stop fighting as long as he lives.” She replies. “I never wanted to be Robin, Tim. It’s been four years, and it still feels like it doesn’t fit. But there was nobody else to do it, no one else to bring him out of that spiral.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim is silent for a moment, so she continues.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come home, Tim. Please. We’ve all missed you so much. Dad isn’t the same anymore. No one is. We can be a family again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t you see, Marinette? I was never meant to be Robin, either. I was just that one annoying kid who wouldn’t leave Bruce alone, the one who blackmailed him into letting a second Robin out onto the streets. Even after I moved in, I was just that one kid who never really belonged, the outsider trying to insert himself into a family, pretending that Bruce cared for me as much as he did his biological children. Bruce only allowed me to stay in the Manor because I knew his secret. Damian made no effort to hide his disgust around me. You- you were the only one in that house who treated me like an equal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He draws a gun and points it at her, and she hears the safety click off. “But you’re Robin. He shouldn’t have made another child Robin. He should have said no, let the legacy die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tim,” She pleads. “Please don’t do this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something in his eyes waver for a moment, fading to blue, before they harden into acid green again. “You meant too much to me. Let’s see if you mean enough to Batman too, enough for him to arrive on time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The gun goes off with a </span>
  <em>
    <span>bang</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and she feels the bullet enter through a crack in her armor, burying itself in her torso. </span>
  <span>The pain is nothing new, but overwhelming all the same as her entire body seems to be on fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last thing she does before everything goes black is calibrate the beacon to send the signal to Nightwing only, before smashing the button with all her remaining strength.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I hope Flamebird gets them here on time.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>There are two reasons why she chooses to send it to Nightwing, and Nightwing only. One being because Damian doesn’t know that Tim is alive, and despite everything, he deserves to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t trust her father to make it.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I got into reverse robins and this is the result.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. don't you love me? | wallynette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kitsune-the1: Could you do “Don’t you love me?” for Wallynette/Garmari like Mari confesses to Adrien and he rejects her? P.S it's Kitsune_the1 from ao3 :)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>the Supergirl TV show is gooooood.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was a dark, cold afternoon when Marinette Dupain-Cheng revealed her identity to Adrien Agreste.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a gray December day when Adrien Agreste turned her down anyway, despite his countless proclamations that he’d love whoever was under the mask too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The skies were pouring freezing rain as the Guardian of the Miracle Box trudged home, head down, and it was still raining when she received the invitation to join the Justice League’s covert ops team.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Adrien Agreste’s ring mysteriously disappears that night while he is asleep, a few words with magic laced into them are spoken, a bag is packed, kwamis are gathered, and a shadow silently slides off of a bakery roof, disappearing into the dark.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All of a sudden, it’s like Marinette Dupain-Cheng has never existed. No one remembers her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette does not exist. She is Minette now, wielder of the Black Cat, Lady of Chaos, the Duchess of Destruction. She is Night, she is Bad Luck, she is a soundless shadow stalking her prey, but she is not Marinette.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There is a speedster who refuses to accept that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His name is Wally West. He lives in Central City with his mother and father, though he spends much more time with his uncle Barry, the second and current Flash, and  his aunt Iris. He loves food and is always eager to test whatever new recipes Miss Martian comes up with, and constantly makes corny science jokes and terrible puns.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Secretly, she kind of likes it, but she’d never tell him that.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, and another thing. Everyone on the team knows each other’s identities. Aqualad is Kaldur’ahm, Kaldur for short. Artemis is Artemis Crock. She hides in plain sight. Superboy is Conner Kent. Miss Martian is M’gann M’orzz, but she uses Megan Morse at school. Robin is Richard Grayson, apparently a billionaire’s son, though he insists that Batman is not his dad. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Kid Flash is Wally West, of course. He’s a scientist, curious by nature.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So naturally, he asks. “What’s your name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Minette.” She replies. Hadn’t Batman already been over that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, like, your real name.” Wally clarifies. “Your civilian ID. What do you go by when you’re not in costume?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looks down at her black suit, so dark it’s almost like it is made out of shadows, and realizes that Plagg should probably be saved for missions, and she should wear something else in the Cave. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Mullo, Plagg, merge. Plagg, claws in.” She says, and then she is left in a casual-looking grey hoodie and jeans, both with pink accents and pink sneakers to match. Her dark hair is pushed back with a pink headband that she has a feeling will turn into a jump rope if she removes it, and a pink and grey mask covers the area around her eyes. “You can call me Souris in this costume, but Minette works too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But that’s not your civilian name.” Wally says, exasperated. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell us, but you could have just said that instead of-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My name is Minette. You may also call me Souris in this form.” She says simply, and the others give up trying. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Wally perseveres, refusing to accept that there is nothing more to her than being a hero.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you like baking?” He asks one day, plopping down on the couch next to her when he sees that she is watching M’gann attempt to make cheesecake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She is adding too much cream.” Minette responds. “That’s why it never comes out properly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The speedster nods. “So you’re a baker. Interesting.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She probably shouldn’t have let it slip, but it was fine. Marinette doesn’t exist. Nobody remembers her. Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng have never had a child.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nobody remembers her, but she remembers them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wally wouldn’t find anything else about her anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Minette, check this out!” He says, and rocks back on his heels to reveal… oh no. Heelys. This was not going to go well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wally takes a running start and glides across the floor, making a full lap around the Cave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then another.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And another.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And another.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s whizzing by at extreme speeds now, nothing more than a screaming ginger blur, the heelys starting to leave a trail of smoke in their wake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s incoherent speech every time he passes her again, and she thinks he might be saying “Ican’tstopIcan’tstopIcan’tstop” or something along those lines.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minette sighs. “Mullo, Wayzz, merge. Shell-ter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next time Wally West comes speeding around, he crashes face-first into a magical green shield, and his nose breaks with a violent </span>
  <em>
    <span>crunch</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He lays flat on his back, a hand coming up to prod at his nose before wincing. “Did you have to bring out the invincible magical shield?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minette divides Wayzz from Mullo before kicking off his smoking heelys. “I would not have had to if you had been more logical about this. You know physics, and should have predicted that this would happen. Besides, if I didn’t bring out the shield, you would have put a hole through that wall in the next ten laps, as you were starting to careen off-center. I am certain that would  have hurt more.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wally cranes his head to look at the rock walls of the Cave, lined with lead. “...Yeah. I suppose so. Gotta find Canary to reset my nose now though, before it heals wrong.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minette rolls her eyes, reaching over and popping it back into place. The speedster yelps in surprise, even though he had ample time to get away with his reflexes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do you know how to do that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I grew up in Paris, remember?” She replies. “Emotional terrorists sending monsters to take my jewelry away at least four times a week?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? No, you never said that!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Minette frowns. “I could have sworn that Batman mentioned it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uhh, nope.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay then. Now you know.” She says casually.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Internally, she curses Wally West’s freckles (so adorable) for making her let her guard down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Little by little, day by day, Wally breaks her down, finding cracks in her mask and slipping in to uncover bits and pieces of the girl no one remembers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Team knows that she can bake now, and so Minette joins M’gann in the kitchen, teaching her to make macarons and mille-feuille and dacquoise and so many other delicious treats, all the recipes straight from a Parisian bakery (not that any of them know that.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The first holiday season she spends with the Team, they all get handmade clothes from her, ones they can wear as civilians with tiny elements of their alter egos folded in, not enough that anyone else would put two and two together, but enough to make them smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaldur gets a navy blue turtleneck, embroidered with lighter blue waves crashing against each other on the hems. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Conner gets a black leather jacket (fake, of course) with his symbol stitched in bold red on the inside pocket. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>M’gann gets a sketch, a design for her to copy, because making her wear inorganic clothing would only inconvenience her if they had to change. The Martian matches her clothing with the design and squeals when she sees herself in the royal blue sundress, small red x’s circling her waist like a belt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For Dick, she decides on a baseball jacket, the same shade of red as his costume, with black sleeves and yellow accents on the pockets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And, last but not least, Wally.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had, admittedly, spent the most time on Wally’s present. In the end, it was a simple hoodie, a bold, bright red. The hoodie was made out of the softest material she could find, and had a yellow lightning bolt stitched on the front. It wasn’t very subtle, but Wally had assured her that he was already known for being a huge fan of the Flash, and that him getting new Flash-themed clothes was nothing new.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His smile when he opens the hoodie, she thinks, was definitely worth the hours she spent combing the security footage for usable camera frames to get his measurements.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It definitely would not have been easier to just ask to measure him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly, over time, he breaks down her carefully constructed walls, picking at the breaks in her armor and widening them, letting the forgotten girl shine through. Just a little.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then, one day, a year and a half after Minette joins the team, it happens.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It is a bright, sunshiney day, with clear skies, when he confesses, on Valentine’s Day, no less, and asks her out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her heart stutters in his chest at his words, and she very hesitantly says no. Because he doesn’t know her, the real her, despite his attempts. He’s in love with the mask. Like Adrien. Not her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she so desperately wants to say yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wally catches that hesitance. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a jerk, but you’re lying.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The smart thing to do would be to deny until he gave up. The logical thing to do would be to deny it. Instead, she’s so overwhelmed by emotions, Wally, </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span>, that she starts crying instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You say you’re in love with me. But this isn’t me. I’m not Minette. She’s just a mask, and the girl underneath is one that’s been wiped from existence. You only know Minette. You only love Minette,” She sniffles. “Don’t you love me, the real me, too?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s not being fair to Wally right now, she knows, considering that he’s done his best to try to get to know the real her and she’s the one who’s been shutting him out, but it was like the dam holding back her emotions for the last 18 months just broke. Every thought, every feeling, every little thing was flooding out of her, and she couldn’t stop it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your passion is designing.” His voice snaps her out of her own mind, and she raises her eyes to meet his green ones, hesitant, tentative, but as she watches, they steel with confidence. “You love sewing your clothes by hand, and only use the sewing machine when it becomes absolutely necessary. You most likely grew up in a bakery, and you bake when you’re stressed. Your favorite sweet is a strawberry macaron, your favorite color is ballerina pink, and you sing </span>
  <em>
    <span>Habanera</span>
  </em>
  <span> from the opera </span>
  <em>
    <span>Carmen</span>
  </em>
  <span> by Georges Bizet when you knead bread dough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You pretend to enjoy Dick’s pop songs, but your favorite music to listen to is actually classical, mostly piano. You had a rooftop garden once, and your favorite video game is Ultimate Mecha Strike 3, which you’ve never lost a round of. The loud colors of our costumes actually irritate you, but you don’t say it out of politeness. Your favorite animals are cats, though that one could have easily been deduced from the suit. You hate liars, bullies, and especially teachers that enable bullies. At least one of your parents is Chinese, but you don’t speak or understand any of the dialects, though you wish you did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know Minette.” Wally says, voice as clear as the blue sky outside. “I know the girl underneath her too. I may not know her name, but I know enough about her to know that I love her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She knows how to detect lies. Wally, especially, has never been a good liar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There is nothing about him right now that declares he’s lying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Marinette.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh?” Wally asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s Marinette. My name is Marinette.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The speedster’s green eyes light up, lips curving into a smile. “Nice to meet you, Marinette. I’m Wally West.” He extends a freckled hand for her to shake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead of taking it, she kisses him.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. alone | timari</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: Could you do Timinette where one of them wakes up from a nightmare but the other isnt there to comfort them</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <b>Warning: lots and lots of death, and not very Dick Grayson friendly (though it is brief)</b>
</p><p>I'm not sorry, because this was super fun to write. (Why is whumping Tim Drake so fun?)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Darkness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It closes in on him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Inch by inch, the shadows creep closer, with their nasty grins and hissing laughs, claws swiping at his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Worthless</span>
  </em>
  <span>, they snarl. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Useless. Can never do anything right.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He backs away, shaking, until he hits another wall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They come closer, cackling at him as the whispers continue.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Couldn’t save your parents. Couldn’t save Stephanie. Couldn’t save Kon. Couldn’t save Bart. Couldn’t save Bruce. So many failures. No wonder even your parents didn’t want you.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A shadowed hand swipes at him, and he doesn’t leap back fast enough. It draws blood on his leg, and he bites back a cry of pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They left you alone for months at a time. </span>
  </em>
  <span>The darkness hisses, an evil smirk growing wider, even though it has no face. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Poor little Timmy, all alone in a big, empty house, with no friends and absent parents and no one who loved him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>But there is someone who loves him, isn’t there?</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s not true!</span>
  </em>
  <span> He cries. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Bruce took me in after Jack died! He adopted me! I have brothers-</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He cuts off, realizing that he doesn’t, not anymore. Dick ripped Robin, the only thing he had left, away from him, and gave it to Damian, who tried to kill him, multiple times. Jason also tried many times to end his life. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And his team? Kon and Bart are gone. Cassie, like the others, thinks he’s crazy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shadows laugh as he realizes that he’s alone. </span>
  <span>But he isn’t, isn’t he? There’s someone else-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He bows his head as they finally reach him, accepting whatever comes next, and then he wakes up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a dark hotel room in France. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s midnight. The room is shrouded in shadows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He reaches to the side, trying to find her, to bask in her comforting presence until he can go back to sleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His hands hit cold blankets instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he can still hear her whispers in his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Another nightmare, mon chou?</span>
  </em>
  <span> She says softly, and he thinks he can feel her fingers gently running through his hair. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Would you like me to stay, or do you want something to drink to calm you down?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stay, please.” He whispers hoarsely, and waits for the warm embrace of her arms around him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it never comes, because she’s not there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette Dupain-Cheng is dead, gone, her ashes scattered to the wind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She died a hero.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she’s not there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just like everyone else.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I think the answer to my previous question in the beginning notes is because I relate to him the most. Why that's logical, I have no idea.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. stop moving and let me braid your hair | cassnette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>anon: “Stop moving and let me braid your hair.” With Cassette or Marijon</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>wHAT IS AN APPROPRIATE SHIP NAME NONE OF THEM SOUND QUITE RIGHT</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Marinette wakes to her girlfriend’s stifled cries, barely even making a sound, her fingers twitching and furrowed eyebrows being the only other signs that she’s having a nightmare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cass is still, when she sleeps. She finds a comfortable position and closes her eyes, then proceeds to not move a muscle until she wakes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she dreams, her fingers will twitch, ever so slightly, and she whimpers, tiny little sounds in the back of her throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette hates that David Cain trained her to be so still, so quiet, even when she is being assaulted by her own memories and trauma.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She reaches over and starts running her fingers through Cass’ hair, fingers sorting through the short inky locks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly, the crease in Caass’ eyebrows smooths itself out, and the tiny whimpers fade into nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then her brown eyes open, just as Marinette is beginning the first braid.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cass sits up, the blankets pooling around her waist, exposing her scarred arms and Batgirl t-shirt. Marinette follows suit as her girlfriend moves, still trying to weave her dark hair, because the repetitive motion relaxes both of them (and Cass looks adorable with braids.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mari.” Cass’ voice is like silvery moonlight, a smile pulling at her lips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Cass.” She replies, pouting when the other girl wiggles on purpose, messing up the first braid, which was almost complete. “Now stop moving and let me braid your hair.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cass laughs, a beautiful sound, before stilling as Marinette goes back to redo the braid with quick, practiced fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She never stills completely, Marinette notices. There’s always a twitch of a finger, a light tap of the foot, a flick of the wrist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cass likes being quiet, but that does not mean that she has to be a statue. David Cain wanted her to be a statue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cass is not a statue. She is a living, breathing being, full of life and joy and beautiful smiles, even as the darkness of her past claws at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette’s fingers tie off the last braid with a red hair tie, and Cass turns around, gesturing for her to rotate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My turn.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Light fingers start tugging gently at her hair, and she relaxes, closing her eyes with a soft, pleased sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At some point, both of them must have fallen asleep, because they wake up again hours later, when golden sunlight streams in through the windows, limbs tangled around each other and hair tied into small braids.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. kiss me until all the stars fall from the sky | marijon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: Could you do "Kiss me until all the stars fall from the sky" with Marijon please</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <b>Warning: lots of blood, mildly graphic description of injuries, and death.</b>
</p><p>did I make one of the most beautiful sentence prompts ever sad? yes, because I tried six different fluffy scenarios and none of them fit right.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>There are two people, one in red, one in blue, in the center of a smoking battlefield, the remains of what was once a building all around them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The one in red lays on the ground, a pool of red the same shade as her suit growing steadily larger around her, as the one in blue attempts to apply pressure to the hole in her torso.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other members of their team stand around in a circle. They all know it is too late. But the one in blue refuses to give up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jon.” The girl in red says weakly, quietly, but the boy in blue hears it anyway. “It’s no use.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no, no.” He says frantically. “It’s going to be alright, Mari. You’re going to be okay. Robin’s called the League, they’ll be here any moment. You’re going to be fine, do you hear me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Robin called the League so they could maybe arrive on time to say goodbye, but he keeps that information to himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl’s body jolts with a cough as she chokes on her own blood. “Do… one last thing for me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy’s smile is wobbly, tears pooling at the corners of his eyes. “Anything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kiss me… until all the stars fall from the sky.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy laughs shakily, the sound wobbling like a bird trying to fly with a broken wing. “Stars can’t fall from the sky, Mari. Remember?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All those nights spent on rooftops and Kansas fields, listening to him point out the stars above. Yes. She does.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“J-just do it.” She murmurs, and feels his lips connect with hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their lips are chapped from all the yells of effort, the grime of the battlefield doing absolutely nothing to make the kiss any less sweet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He tastes the blood on her lips, coating the raspberry sorbet that they had shared just minutes before the battle had started, the tiny hints of her vanilla chapstick still present.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then her lips still, and he can’t hear a heartbeat anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He pulls away from the last kiss he’ll ever share with her, tears streaking down his cheeks, and brushes his lips across her forehead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then he buries his face in her shoulder, already starting to lose its warmth, and cries.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. oh my god you're superboy | marijon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: Hi! Can you do a Marijon prompt with:<br/>"oh my God... Oh my God.. OH MY GOD! YOU ARE SUPERBOY! but that means.... that means that... CLARK IS SUPERMAN!" "Uhhmm... It's not what it looks like?"<br/>Thx, i luv ur writing btw</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Think of this one as an apology for the last Marijon fic.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Marinette decided to walk down the street, she did not expect Lex Luthor to come barreling down with a new robot to try and punch the Supers’ lights out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now she’s sailing through the air thanks to a bright green blast that sent her flying backwards, a stray piece of debris clocking her on the head as she went, and-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oof.” She grunts as she lands in someone’s arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry Miss, I’ve got you!” A very familiar voice says. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Without opening her eyes (that light was very bright, okay? And she hit her head on something. A concussion is very likely), she frowns. “Jon? Is that you? Why are you calling me that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jon sputters, and then she feels an impact beneath her like whoever’s carrying her has just landed on the ground (or a roof.) The last time she felt this was when Chat Noir carried her home that one time, but this was Metropolis. The Supers didn’t just let-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, no.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Supers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes snap open, and sure enough, it’s Superboy carrying her, not Jon. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wait. Superboy is Jon. So it is Jon carrying me. Jon is Superboy. Superboy is Jon.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my god.” She breathes, eyes widening. “Oh my god. Oh my god. YOU’RE SUPERBOY!” She whisper-shouts, because even in this state, she’s not stupid enough to yell secret identities to everyone in the vicinity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But that means… that means… </span>
  <em>
    <span>Clark’s Superman?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Her mind connects the dots. Have they seriously just been using glasses this entire time? Really? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jon gapes, looking a little bit like a fish (a very cute fish- wait. What is she thinking?) “Uhhh… It’s not what it looks like?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette crosses her arms, looking up at him, and raises a single eyebrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Y-yeah! It’s not what it looks like! Miss, you must have gotten me confused for someone else, b-because I definitely am not Jon Kent. Y-yeah, and my dad’s not Clark Kent either. Yep. Mhm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I never said your last name.” She responds, and Jon looks like a deer in headlights for a moment before sighing in resignation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay. Fine. You got me, Mari. It’s me. I’m Superboy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette grins up at him, ignoring how easy it would be to close the gap between their lips while she’s still in his arms. “You really need to work on your lying skills, Boy of Steel. They’re atrocious.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. stars that smile down on us | marijon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anon: what would be the JL reaction to "kiss me until all the stars fall from the sky"?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A happy-ish ending because it turns out that I do have feelings after all. And a Percy Jackson (think: Titan's Curse, Zoe Nightshade) reference if you catch it!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The League arrives moments too late. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wonder Woman is the first to rush forward, not a single sound escaping her lips even as tears stream down her face. The warrior princess soundlessly falls to her knees in front of her protege’s body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Superman is next, landing beside his son and wrapping an arm around his shoulders as he wails, mourning the girl in red.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Batman stiffens almost imperceptibly when Robin suddenly hugs him, but returns it nonetheless. It is obvious that both of them need it, for the girl was like a sister, like a daughter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other Leaguers form a circle around the crater where the girl’s body had landed, where she took her final stand and last breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another hero.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another child.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gone, taken too soon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to forget her.” Superboy has lifted his head, voice raw and eyes red, but not from heat vision. “I only knew her for so long. W-what if I forget?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There is a way to preserve her family.” Wonder Woman says carefully. “But you will not have a body to bury.” She looks to the team of young heroes, for they were the girl’s family.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One by one, they all nod, determined glints in their eyes, until finally, it is the boy in blue’s turn.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She never wanted to be buried anyway.” His resolve is harder than steel. “Do it. Please.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so Princess Diana of the Amazons murmurs a few words in Ancient Greek, praying to the gods, before the girl’s body dissolves into silver light, sparkling as it weaves around them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They can almost hear her laugh, echoing in the night, as the light swirls around Superboy one last time before going up, up, into the sky and settling itself into a pattern.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It glows silver for a moment before fading, leaving a new scatting of stars in the sky, ones that form the outline of a pigtailed girl, cheerfully smiling down at them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy in blue raises a hand and slowly traces the outline of her face as the others look on in wonder. Diana lets the corners of her mouth quirk up into a small smile as she looks up at the new constellation, hand coming up to wipe away another tear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“May you live forever among the stars.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. notice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>so I don't usually do these, but...</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hello everyone!</p><p> </p><p>I've decided to mark this fic as completed, mainly because the tags were getting reaaaaaally long, and also because my impulsive brain decided that I didn't like the way this was organized.</p><p>Therefore, from now on, all prompted oneshots will be posted as their own separate work. I will be making a new series to facilitate navigation between those fics, and the prompts/theories that I come up with will be compiled in a different work. </p><p>Thanks for understanding!</p><p> </p><p>Phi</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>find me on <a href="https://m3owww.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>!</p></blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26456410">What a Spotless Coffee Shop!</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zorua_the_Adorable/pseuds/Zorua_the_Adorable">Zorua_the_Adorable</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27809407">The Only Thing Necessary</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rajani_the_Freak/pseuds/Rajani_the_Freak">Rajani_the_Freak</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27895417">Through Rose-Tinted Lenses</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rajani_the_Freak/pseuds/Rajani_the_Freak">Rajani_the_Freak</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
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